Nicole Eisenman’s Bosch-flavored sculptures on the Whitney’s terrace may be the most Instagrammed works at this year’s biennial, but the most buzzed-about project is undoubtedly “Triple-Chaser” (2019). With computer programming and more traditional documentary techniques, the 11-minute film by Forensic Architecture — an independent research collaborative based at Goldsmiths, University of London — outlines in unsparing detail the harm done by tear gas and bullets manufactured by companies backed by Whitney board member Warren Kanders. Migrants choke on the US-Mexico border. A man’s leg is blown open in Gaza. The phrase “possibly aiding and abetting war crimes” is uttered. 

The video is nothing short of technical wizardry, and has been rightly lauded for its investigative work and for raising awareness about international struggles, police states, and nefarious institutional funding. Downstream of this praise, however, has also appeared a solemn respect for the Whitney itself, an institution cast as brave and worldly enough to exhibit a self-critical piece in its most anticipated event of the year. New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz, for example, effused in his biennial review, “Props to the Whitney for showcasing this work, which is sure to come down on them like a ton of bricks.”

Never have laurels been so unearned.1

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• 1. Think of the ten-minute video that Forensic Architecture unveiled at the 2019 Whitney Biennial more as a progress report than a capstone project. The London-based research group is far from finished with Warren Kanders, the vice chairman at the Whitney Museum of American Art who activists and researchers have accused of being complicit in alleged war crimes at the Israeli-Palestinian border.

  Source: Hyperallergic