Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind
"Since August 2017, I have been working with archivists at TIME Inc. researching the history of fact-checking as a profession. The position was created by TIME’s founders in 1923, and as the first weekly news magazine in the United States, TIME served as an aggregator, culling stories from over 300 newspapers. TIME’s reporting was advertised as “written after the most thorough and exhaustive scrutiny of news-sources.” However this “exhaustive scrutiny” was considered women’s work from its inception.
The photographs, sculptures, and carbonless prints included in this first exhibition of Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind have two points of departure: early fact-checking manuals; and advertisements for TIME from the publication’s first year in existence. These advertisements often relied on nonsensical metaphors—"Catch 100 baseballs with a seven-bushel crab net"—and always used the male pronoun—“He cut the Gordian Knot”—to describe the female fact-checkers' work. The works in the show address both this absurdism and the role of women in the development of a profession that is more important now than ever."
Opening exhibition:
Friday, April 6, 6–8 pm
Cuchifritos Gallery
120 Essex Street, New York, NY 10002
On view through April 22, 2018
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 12–6 pm