Partitions & Time, from the portfolio In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive and You Were Full of Joy

Partitions & Time belongs to a portfolio of twelve images that was made as part of a fundraising campaign against the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In Partitions & Time, Lorna Simpson disrupts the clarity of subject that a photograph presumably affords by blurring her image. She also denies the viewer access to her subject by portraying the back of an unidentified female sitter. Through the techniques of obscuring and doubling her subject, Simpson creates an optical conundrum, challenging the observer to ponder her artistic choices. Partitions & Time asks spectators to become active participants in the making of the work’s meaning by contemplating the relationship between the sitter and the accompanying text, which refers to American quota systems and federal policies regarding minority groups. The presence of text alongside a black-and-white photograph endows the work with a documentary character, encouraging the viewer to contemplate the identity of the subject in relation to the categorical and quantifiable terms in the margins.