Repost from @followriversinstitute • Over the last few years, Yto Barrada has committed to the study of exposure in two films. In “The Power of Two or Three Suns’ (2020), the hand of an anonymous laboratory technician is captured adjusting an array of fabric swatches to a spinning and whirring metal framework designed to test the fabric's resilience in the face of extreme natural conditions (heat, cold, UV radiation, and wind) said to emit "the power of two or three suns." In her most recent film, 'A Day is a Day,' commissioned for the 2022 Whitney Biennial, Barrada turns her lens to two "weather acceleration" facilities in Miami and Phoenix dedicated to test the durability of consumer products. Moving between the two laboratories and their surrounding landscapes, Barrada signals the visible consequences of natural and manmade environmental distress. Over-exposed is a term from photography we sometimes extend to the human condition. We can quantify it more easily on materials, but feel it most acutely in ourselves. Like the materials in Barrada’s films, we have been tested over these past few years, a period that this year’s Whitney Biennial – ‘Quiet as Its Kept’- aims to take stock of. We send our warmest congratulations to Rivers' artist Yto Barrada for her sensitivity to both light and darkness – and her inclusion in this year's Whitney Biennial, a powerful exhibition curated by Adrienne Edwards and David Breslin. IMAGES: (1,3) Barrada, Film stills from ‘A Day is a Day’ 2022, courtesy of the artist (2) Barrada, A series of film stills from 'The Power of Two or Three Suns,' 2020. Courtesy of the artist, Pace Gallery, and Sfeir-Semler, and Galerie Polaris @ytobarrada @followriversinstitute @whitneymuseum @davidbreslin @adynyc @pacegallery #ytobarrada #followriversinstitute #massmoca #whitneybiennial #quietasitskept