As a former pop - music star with the Icelandic
bands Kanada and Trabant, Kjartansson's hybrid
practice probes the relationship
between performance and music through duration.
Standouts include Carrie Mae Weems» holographic narrative about race, sex, and politics portrayed by ghostly characters on a burlesque stage; The Propeller Group's video that draws parallels
between funeral
practices in Vietnam and New Orleans, along with the collective's sculptures of tricked - out musical instruments, which were also photographed with members of Louisiana marching
bands; Glenn Kaino's installation of water tanks that turn military machines into coral reefs; Jean - Michel Basquiat's paintings and works on paper that reference the cultural legacy of the Mississippi Delta and the South; Camille Henrot's video exploration of the universe by way of the storage rooms of the Smithsonian Institution; Tavares Strachan's 100 - foot long neon sign declaring «You belong here» from a barge on the Mississippi River; and Andrea Fraser's monologue, in which she recreated a heated debate by New Orleans city council members during a 1991 vote to racially integrate the Mardi Gras krewes — changing her voice and expression as she dynamically alternated
between speakers, both black and white.