A Cold Hole

Taryn Simon’s dual summer exhibitions at MASS MoCA, A Cold Hole, and Assembled Audience, were featured in a recent edition of The Boston Globe. Focusing on the intermingling of performance and spectacle in both installations, the piece suggests a new kind of approach to participatory art. The small audience I joined was fixated. The painterly setup, black and white, squares within squares, pulls the eye to the center. Then we viscerally apprehend the performer’s experience. We understand the grit and the folly of this ritual—how it brings you face to face with your mortal self as your lungs freeze, until you emerge, alive and gasping for air. —Cate McQuaid Taryn Simon: Assembled Audience | A Cold Hole at Mass MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts, is on view through March 2019.