that art blog

Mimi Onuoha. The Library of Missing Datasets (2016) Mixed-media installation

The Library of Missing Datasets is a physical repository of those things that have been excluded in a society where so much is collected. "Missing data sets" are the blank spots that exist in spaces that are otherwise data-saturated. Wherever large amounts of data are collected, there are often empty spaces where no data live. The word "missing" is inherently normative. It implies both a lack and an ought: something does not exist, but it should. That which should be somewhere is not in its expected place; an established system is disrupted by distinct absence. That which we ignore reveals more than what we give our attention to. It’s in these things that we find cultural and colloquial hints of what is deemed important. Spots that we've left blank reveal our hidden social biases and indifferences.

JEB. 

Gloria and Charmaine, Baltimore, 1979.

Pagan, left, and Kady at home in Monticello, N.Y., in 1978.