The Whitney Museum of American Art recently announced participants for the eightieth iteration of their renowned biennial exhibition, which includes works from School of Art faculty members Coco Fusco and Lucy Raven as well as three art and architecture alumni: Rose Salane A'14, Rayyane Tabet AR'08, and Kandis Williams A'09.

As part of the 2022 Whitney Biennial, Professor Fusco will show Your Eyes Will Be an Empty Word (2021), a film about Hart Island that she made in response to the pandemic during the 2020 lockdown. The island, which has served as a public cemetery for New York City’s unclaimed dead since 1869, became the final resting place for many COVID victims. Professor Fusco captured footage via drone since island access is restricted.

“I convinced a few colleagues to go out to Hart Island on a boat and we lowered a little dinghy into the East River for me to row in while the drone camera was managed from the big boat,” notes Professor Fusco of the filming process. “We had to work pretty fast because the sun's movements across the sky change the light drastically.”

Professor Raven will present a moving image installation. “This suite of short films will be the second installment of a trilogy of Westerns I'm working on. Part one was installed at Dia this past year; this one I'm making at an explosives range and test site in New Mexico,” says Professor Raven.

This year’s Whitney Biennial, titled “Quiet as It’s Kept,” opens on April 6, 2022 and runs through September 5, 2022. It is the longest-running exhibition of its kind to chart developments in art of the United States.