Living Things

Making an effort to hyper-consciously perceive objects and sensations is a scientifically sound method of quelling the nebulous clouds of anxiety brought about by the threat of more abstract dangers. On view at JTT, "Living Things"—a group show curated by the gallery's director, Marie Catalano—brings together nearly two dozen multimedia pieces by six artists in examining the tiers of meaning that the sentient human mind can often project onto inanimate things.

Take Maren Hassinger's Pink Trash, for instance, which is documented in the exhibition as three photographs of the performance's first realization in 1982 [pictured]. For the piece, the artist ventured into Manhattan's Central Park, the Bronx's Van Cortlandt Park, and Brooklyn's Prospect Park, stopping along the way to collect pieces of trash. Taking these back to her studio, she painted the scraps of litter pink. And then she returned the refuse—now infused with rather rosier hues—back to wherever she had initially found it. The effect of the intervention: to upend others' garbage-related expectations.