BY GINNY VAN ALYEA

The first-ever retrospective exhibition of the work of Columbian artist Doris Salcedo opened this weekend at the Museum of Contemporary Art.  

Unfamiliar with Salcedo's work in person, viewing the variety of installations at the media preview on Friday morning was an altogether powerful and somber experience that I will not soon forget. The exhibition gave me a personal way to connect to the scale and depth of tragedy that affects so many victims of political violence in a world far away from my own. The opportunity to see so many of Salcedo's works installed at the MCA also allowed me an appreciation of her comprehensive vision and an understanding of her unusual use of everyday materials. 

The largest presentation of Salcedo's work to date, the exhibition is organized chronologically, giving the visitor a sense of how her works began and where they are today. While Salcedo's art has evolved over time, her subject matter has largely stayed the same, addressing the experience of loss, particularly due to political violence. Her subjects have witnessed the murder of family members. Victims have been marginalized or simply disappeared, their lives erased, but for Salcedo's efforts to remember them. Through sculptures and installations, she honors lives lost, revives memories denied, and speaks out against profound violations of the human condition. 

Salcedo's works are made more powerful through her use of materials. Concrete has been poured into old furniture, rendering items useless. Tables are joined with human hair and silk to represent homes and hearts broken by murder. Rose petals and thread (stitched by many, many assistants) become a rich red shroud to honor a tortured nurse who was then denied a funeral. 12,000 needles adorn an almost invisible shirt, creating a physical version of memory. 

Doris Salcedo is a major effort from the MCA to mount exhibitions of this caliber, particularly ones that travel (this will continue to Guggenheim in June), and it opens in conjunction with several significant announcements about the museum's future. The MCA has launched a $64 million capital campaign ($60 million of which has been raised already from the museum's board) so that it may further its commitment to featuring ground breaking art (Jeff Koons, Dan Flavin and Frieda Kahlo all had their first solo museum shows at the MCA.) The current museum will undergo some renovations, including the development of a new, ground-floor restaurant, but it will not gain any additional space through new construction. Instead it will commit more funds to exhibitions and to working artists. The MCA is also launching a new visual/graphic identity, with a friendly logo as well as a richer, more interactive website. 

Doris Salcedo 

Feb 21–May 24, 2015

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60611

Top key image: Doris Salcedo, Installation view, Doris Salcedo Studio, Bogotá, 2013. Photo: Oscar Monsalve Pino. Courtesy White Cube. Reproduced courtesy of the artist; Alexander and Bonin, New York; and White Cube.