‘Language in Times of Miscommunication,’ shows March 4-Aug. 27

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art presents “Language in Times of Miscommunication,” featuring artwork incorporating various forms of language, communication, and more from March 4 to Aug. 27.

The exhibit showcases examples of language (poetry, speculative fiction, and slang), modes of communication (propaganda, protest, social media, and advertising), and research materials (archives, political documents, and the news) that form an exchange about the “slippery relationship between opinion, fact, and fiction, within the construct of our collective reality,” according to a press release.

"Language in Times of Miscommunication" focuses on the United States, the release said, noting how the nation’s “polemic atmosphere and increasingly divided reality is information by the redefinition of truth (reality that is possibly outside of human comprehension),” which upholds personal ideology.

The exhibit acts as a platform to question how social fictions are created, interpreted, and, often, miscommunicated. 

The exhibit features work by Kristin Bauer, April Bey, Andrea Bowers, York Chang, Jeremy Dean, Jeffrey Gibson, Jenny Holzer, Christopher Jagmin, Glenn Ligon, Patrick Martinez, Elizabeth Moran, Ann Morton, Polymode, William Powhida, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Horacio Rodriguez, Safwat Saleem, and Anna Tsouhlarakis.

“Language in Times of Miscommunication” is organized by Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and curated by Lauren R. O’Connell, curator of contemporary art, with Keshia Turley, curatorial assistant.

SMoCA, 7374 E. Second St., Scottsdale, is open 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; and o 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. on Thursdays.

Visit SMoCA.org/exhibitions for more information.