The coffee table display of Dominique Duroseau’s self-portrait color photographs (from “being as, femininity as, black as…,” 2018-ongoing), amid antique black-and-white photographs of white women, signals this theme through contrasts in the photographs’ colors and ages. The exhibition’s conceit - pairing selections from Molina’s Collection with works by five contemporary, mostly local artists - highlights the somewhat arbitrary value some cultural objects accrue, but not others, often along racial lines. Co-curated by Molina and artist Alicia Grullón, What is Here is Open: Selections from the Treasures in the Trash Collection is also a fitting exhibition for Hunter East Harlem Gallery, which is located near Molina’s former DSNY route and has a mission to engage its local community. It is a fitting contrast in an exhibition inspired by artist Fred Wilson’s satirical yet serious institutional critiques. The understated humor of the MASSAGE sign tempers the blunt political message of the REALTORS sign above. The signs come from the Treasures in the Trash Collection, a remarkable congeries of over 40,000 discarded objects salvaged by retired sanitation worker Nelson Molina and arranged in a New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) garage. Two prominent signs hang in the street-facing window of Hunter East Harlem Gallery: “REALTORS = VULTURES,” in white-stenciled letters on a black background, and, below, “ Open/ MASSAGE,” in neon green, red, and blue. All photos by Stan Narten courtesy of Hunter East Harlem Gallery.
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