A i i I I I W I I I, 2024
Currently on view until Nov 9th, at Penumbra Foundation, NYC
Penumbra Foundation is pleased to present a ll i ll w i ll, a solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Sandra Erbacher, formed in response to the collection of documents produced by the Eugenics Record Office (ERO), located in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. Established by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the ERO gathered biological and social information about the ancestry of the American population, such as inborn physical, mental, and temperamental traits. Erbacher’s work engages with the collection on different levels, considering the structure of the archive housing the documents by analyzing its rules, organizing principles and function, in this case, to promote the idea of race-betterment and the influence of government policy on matters of immigration restriction and sterilization - the legacy of which can still be felt today.
In her reproduction of the archive’s materials, Erbacher avoids replicating the clinical and colonial gaze through arrangements of collage, text and objects in space. Handwritten descriptive text plays with the expectations of mental illness; the imperfection of her non-mechanical lettering rebukes the presumed control of archival authority. Collaged photographs displace the scrutinized identifying details of the subjects of pedigree studies, conjuring the human beings at the heart of the cases.
Subverting categorization away from the linear constructs of chronology and the thematic, publications with earthy beige and ambient blue covers are arranged according to their hue, value, and saturation, bringing to light how certain colors can make the information presented seem “natural,” inevitable, like objective fact/ truth. Similar to the anthropological objects and imagery intently arranged and displayed, they are opportunities to create personal and subjective connections that examine and challenge the dominant systematic narrative.
By playing with modes of remembering and forgetting that are embedded in the bureaucratic structure of an archive, Erbacher tries to restore the research subjects’ selfhood - a futile attempt, as only fragments of the whole person can be accessed through an archive.
Institutional Color Chart by Publication (ERO), 2024, archival inkjet print, 69x 39in
Institutional Color Chart is a print that explores the structure of archives by dissecting their rules, organizing principles, and functions. Instead of replicating traditional archival methods based on provenance, subject matter, or timeline, this work reclassifies the publications of the Eugenics Record Office (ERO) according to visual elements—specifically hue, value, and saturation. This reorganization aims to upend the original archival classification system, challenging the conventions of how information is categorized and perceived.
The piece also examines how certain colors, particularly blues and beiges, are employed by institutions to make presented information seem "natural," authoritative, and inevitable. By highlighting this subtle use of color, Institutional Color Chart exposes how aesthetic choices contribute to the aura of legitimacy and neutrality often associated with institutional narratives.
In bringing these usually invisible organizing principles and mechanisms of validation to the forefront, the work invites viewers to critically engage with the ways archives shape our understanding of history and knowledge. It underscores the influence of design elements in framing information, prompting a reconsideration of the perceived objectivity within institutional contexts.
Swallowing Stones and Buttons, 2024, archival inkjet print, 42.5x 88in
Swallowing Stones and Buttons is a large black-and-white tiled print (42.5 x 88 inches) featuring an array of small objects—pebbles, shards of glass, buttons, nails—arranged meticulously in a grid-like format. The composition echoes the visual language of archaeological archives and colonialist photography, which historically sought to classify and order found artifacts, often reducing cultural objects to mere specimens of study.
This work draws parallels between the medical and colonialist gaze, engaging in dialogue with a case study of a boy documented for compulsively swallowing stones, buttons, and other small objects. By referencing this case while sourcing the objects from a variety of archaeological archives, including Harvard’s Peabody Museum and the NYC Archaeological Repository, the piece invites viewers to consider the intersections of medical diagnosis, historical categorization, and colonial exploitation.
Through this juxtaposition of personal compulsion and institutional archiving, Swallowing Stones and Buttons challenges the authority of both medical and colonial frameworks in defining and interpreting objects, histories, and bodies. It prompts a reflection on how systems of classification shape our understanding of individuals and cultures, while questioning the inherent power dynamics embedded in such acts of ordering and documentation.
Untitled (Ceramic Beads), 2024, fired clay, string, approx. 112x 60in
Untitled (Ceramic Beads) is a large-scale, suspended sculpture comprised of hand-shaped, unglazed ceramic beads, standing at 112 inches tall and 60 inches wide. The piece imposes itself on the viewer, bisecting the gallery space in a way that evokes the familiar yet obstructive presence of a beaded curtain. However, beneath its physicality lies a deep historical resonance, rooted in the discriminatory practices of early psychiatric and immigration screenings.
Inspired by bead stringing tests used by psychiatrists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this work challenges the viewer to reconsider the origins of such tests, which were once employed as tools to determine intelligence and mental fitness. Immigrants subjected to these tests were required to replicate sample strings of beads—carefully arranged by color, shape, and size—as a measure of their perceived worthiness to enter the USA. These tests, fundamentally dehumanizing, sought to distinguish between the "desirable" and the "defective."
In Untitled (Ceramic Beads), no two beads are alike. Shaped by the natural squeezing, rolling, and manipulation of clay by hand, each bead carries the imprint of its creation, embracing individuality rather than conformity. Their unglazed surfaces enhance a sense of rawness and fragility, evoking imagery of bone fragments or relics of the past, suspended in space. This haunting quality underscores the tension between the object’s material vulnerability and its imposing presence.
By intentionally defying the uniformity demanded by these historical tests, the work invites reflection on how we measure human worth, challenging us to confront the legacies of exclusion, judgment, and the fragile, constructed nature of societal standards.
