September 15 – December 22, 2022
Works by Johannah Herr
In the midst of the last century, in 1939 and 1964 – on the precipice of World War and at the height of the Cold War – two World’s Fairs were held in Flushing Meadows. Tens of millions of visitors flocked to Queens to glimpse the American Way, a path paved by capitalism and democracy. I Have Seen the Future looks back at how these visions of utopia have defined our reality in the 21st century. Named for the slogan on pins available at General Motors’ “Futurama” exhibit on view at both Fairs, I Have Seen the Future is an immersive installation meant to evoke the experience of visiting in 1939 and 1964 — with the hindsight of 2022.
This guide is an accompaniment to artist Johannah Herr’s body of work, I Have Seen the Future, featuring architectural models of various utopias that ask just who was modeling our future, and why? Herr’s architectural models—depicted within these pages in ravishing hues—are accompanied by descriptions of pavilions at this re-imagined Fair by writer Cara Marsh Sheffler. Crucially, the pages are also adorned with words from our legion of sponsors. After all, the future was always brought to you by Exxon Mobil, General Motors, US Steel, Lockheed Martin, Dow Chemical—and so many more! In this guide, we invite you to consider the legacy of so many thoughts about tomorrow—and how they led us to today.
White Flight! picks up where the Official Guide left off. White Flight! asks who was allowed into suburbia – and what mechanisms of exclusion kept others out. The history of the suburbs draws a direct path to today’s mottled US map of desperately unequal oppurtunities and wealth distribution. Through collage, subverted advertisements, found text, and essays, White Flight! tells the story of what actually constitutes a white picket fence.
Johannah Herr holds an MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art (2016) and a BFA in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design (2009). She has had solo shows at Field Projects, Geary Contemporary, NADA Governor’s Island, Untitled San Francisco, BRIC, Elijah Wheat Showroom and Envoy Enterprises (all New York City), Red Ger Gallery (Ulaabaatar, Mongolia) and Galeri Metropol (Tallinn, Estonia) and been featured in group shows at Pioneer Works (Brooklyn, NY), Visual Arts Center of New Jersey (Summit, NJ), Center for Contemporary Art (Warsaw, Poland) and DADAPost (Berlin). She is a Fulbright Scholar (Mongolia) and has attended residencies at BRIC (Brooklyn, NY), SIM (Reykjavik, Iceland), Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), IEA’s Experimental Projects Residency (Alfred, NY), Oxbow Artists Residency (Saugatuk, MI), Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY), Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT) and The Arctic Circle Residency (Svalbard, International Territory). She currently teaches at Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute and New York University. Additionally, she is the Co-Founder of Daughters Rising, an anti-human trafficking, indigenous women’s empowerment NGO based in Mae Wang, Thailand. She lives and works between Brooklyn and Mae Wang.
