A N A M E R I C A N I N D E X
O F T H E H I D D E N A N D U N F A M I L I A R, T A R Y N S I M O N
P U B L I C A T I O N
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With a foreword by Salman Rushdie, the photographs in An American Index (Steidl, 2007), which were exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2007, serve as an inventory of spaces that function at the heart of American culture but lie hidden and out-of-view. Simon's varied subject matter in this series, gathered from the realms of government, medicine, entertainment, science, religion, national security, and nature, ranges from radioactive capsules at a nuclear waste storage facility to a portrait of a selectively inbred white tiger. Carefully documenting provocative and controversial subjects, she makes use of the annotated photograph's power to engage and inform us, employing a direct and unsentimental approach that brings these strange and often inaccessible aspects of American life into the light of day.
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Courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Photo by Robert Maxwell
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White Tiger (Kenny), Selective Inbreeding,Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge and Foundation, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
In the United States, all living white tigers are the result of selective inbreeding to artificially create the genetic conditions that lead to white fur, ice-blue eyes and a pink nose. Kenny was born to a breeder in Bentonville, Arkansas on February 3, 1999. As a result of inbreeding, Kenny is mentally retarded and has significant physical limitations. Due to his deep-set nose, he has difficulty breathing and closing his jaw, his teeth are severely malformed and he limps from abnormal bone structure in his forearms. The three other tigers in Kenny’s litter are not considered to be quality white tigers as they are yellow-coated, cross-eyed, and knock-kneed.
© 2007 Taryn Simon / Courtesy Steidl / Gagosian
