Walead Beshty: Natural Histories

Moments spent in elevators, check-ins at airports, subway rides―these are all examples of the kind of “in-between” time that fascinates Walead Beshty and supplies so much of the material for his photographs. “In-between time” applies to civic space, too―depopulated modernist housing developments that sit precariously between evacuation and demolition (explored by Beshty in his Excursionist Views), plants, weeds and vegetation on isolated highway medians (Island Flora), or abandoned shopping malls (American Passages). More recently, Beshty’s adventures in “the in-between” have become a means of production, as he makes creative use of such mundane procedures as air travel or sending a package. This monograph presents a ten-year overview of Walead Beshty’s approach to photographic and sculptural representation, and contains newly commissioned essays by Suzanne Hudson and Nicolas Bourriaud, as well as a conversation between Bob Nickas and Beshty.