Good art is supposed to convey profound truths, according to the hoary cliche. But what about when it tells significant lies? That may be one of the more important things that art can do today, according to a new exhibition called More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness, which recently opened at SITE Santa Fe and travels to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 2013. More Real looks at art that channels, and maybe comments on, our ability to blur reality’s boundaries. “We now live in an ‘Age of Truthiness,’” says the exhibition press release, “a time when our understanding of the truth is no longer bound to anything tangible, provable, or factual.“ But do images such as those in this show comment on that situation or help to bring it about?
This Web gallery provides some evidence to make that judgment call. If you can trust it ...
—Blake Gopnik