Time is Always Now / Peter Beard / Carnets Africans

This «Gallery» is in fact a standing exhibition /​retrospective of Peter Beard’s photographs and his famous collage-​work «diaries.»
First let me say that the «show» is ideologically problematic in SO many ways. It is sensational and exploitative, celebrates the objectification of women, the romanticizing of colonialism, implicit racism, and the erotics of death. It aestheticizes the destruction of the environment under the dual guises of protection and documentation and one frequently encounters such ludicrous quotations from Beard as «I’ve always done fashion stuff if asked to… I like the girls, I like the extreme beauty. It always amazes me that I’ve been criticized for photographing both wildlife and beautiful women, because there is a thread between them: Beautiful women will be the last thing left in nature that’s worthy of worship.»
Gag.
But on the level of pure affect this show is amazing, maybe even because it is so ideologically problematic and also because it is so un-​self-​conscious of this fact. Only a sheltered scion of privilege could have created such a monster.
First there are glass vitrines containing the diaries, which Beard began to compile in 1949 at the age of eleven. These document the history of his relationships with (among other things); Africa, Karen Blixen, the New York art scene, the fashion world, Hollywood, and the Kennedy administration. Page after page is covered with photographs of women, transcribed telephone messages, marginalia in India ink, clippings from the daily newspapers, dried leaves and insects, old sepia-​toned photographs, drawings of animals and people by Kikuyu artists, quotes by Joseph Conrad, found objects, images of decaying elephant carcasses, and sometimes, Beard’s own blood.
These cases are placed in the center of the gallery floor and the walls of the gallery are a reiteration of the same, collaged, floor to ceiling with photographs and etc. It is actually sublime and overwhelming and also just terrible.
Music accompanies this display, usually very loud old Bowie or the Rolling Stones.
But my favorite (ironic) part is that the people who work there are all very tall, very beautiful, supermodel types who are happy to hand you a pamphlet or sell you a catalogue.
I really feel that this exhibit is the ultimate time-​capsule of the 20^th century — all our tragic beliefs and attitudes about race, sex, ethnicity, capitalism, power, corruption, ecology, celebrity, sport, beauty, eroticism, and death are here to pummel you into an unhappy submission, but maybe also make you think about the state of our world in elegiac ways.