Photographer Mark Armijo McKnight is widely known for his sharp, black-and-white photos depicting queer people alone and together in desert locales. These photos are not so much about the erotic, as they deploy the erotic as a site to ask questions about embodiment, time, art history, and image making itself. For Decreation, an ongoing body of work inspired by French philosopher Simone Weil’s theories on the self, McKnight conceives images—as well as a sculpture and a 16mm film from a project inspired by György Ligeti’s fluxus composition Poème symphonique—to undo his self. Not to deconstruct, but to decreate, to eclipse the ego with compassion, per Weil. The photos depict embracing nude bodies among desolate desertscapes, soft mountains of the New Mexico Badlands pliable like dough, and ominous goat skeletons. Select works from Decreation are on view at The Whitney Museum until January 2025. Read More