Chloë Bass: Wayfinding

Chloë Bass: Wayfinding is an installation of sculptures that takes inspiration from public wayfinding signage. Artist Chloë Bass (b. 1984) wrote the texts and sourced the edited archival images presented on more than thirty sculptures that will be installed across the Pulitzer’s outdoor spaces. The works comprising the exhibition are organized into four “strands,” each anchored by a billboard that poses a question by the artist concerning human emotions, from intimacy and desire to anxiety and loss. Accompanying sculptures include related images and statements that encourage private reflection in public space, intensifying everyday moments. In addition to the sculptures, Wayfinding includes a site-specific audio artwork which will be accessible by phone via a call-in number. The audio artwork is narrated by Bass; artist Damon Davis; poet, storyteller, and podcaster Cheeraz Gormon; and theatre artist Ron Himes.

Chloë Bass is a New York-based artist who works in performance, publications, installation, and social spaces, using daily life as a subject for deep research into scales of human intimacy. Wayfinding is a sub-project of Obligation to Others Holds Me in My Place, a poetic investigation of intimacy within the immediate family.

Wayfinding was originally commissioned by The Studio Museum in Harlem, in New York City, and exhibited at the nearby St. Nicholas Park from 2019–20. Bass is working with community partners to expand the commission and revise components of the project for its St. Louis presentation.