Camille Henrot, "Essay on Exoticism," Victor Segalen, from "Is it possible to be a revolutionary and like flowers?," 2012. Mixed mediums, dimensions variable. © ADAGP Camille Henrot. Photo Nicola Delorme. Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris.
French artist Camille Henrot provides the standout in the New Museum’s slew of new exhibitions, showing a fantastic mix of video, engravings, sculptures and ikebana-style flower arrangements. The latter are based on books from Henrot’s library, translating texts into configurations of plants and objects that still manage to carry something of their source material. Also on view is Grosse Fatigue (2013), a video splicing together creation myths and screenshots of items from the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, all within the visual framework of a computer desktop. The work won her the Silver Lion at last year’s Venice Biennale.