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A Living Man Declared Dead And Other Chapters I - XVIII is a photographic series by artist Taryn Simon that was executed in a four-year period (2008-2011). In this period, the artist embarked on travels all across the world tracing and researching different bloodlines. The series, which is comprised of 18 "chapters", showcases Simon's research and travels.The chapters are investigation of fate, blood, psychological inheritance and what the artist refers to as, "a relentless persistence of birth and death, and an endless collection of stories in between."

Background
Each "chapter" is comprised of three parts: image, text, and footnotes. The first part is composed of a rigorous system of images, in which the subject, their ascendants, and descendants are photographed after being interviewed on a plain off-white background, stripped from any cultural context. The images are then placed in rows alongside one other in a chronological order to represent the bloodline. Occasionally, some of the subjects were not able to attend the shoot because of military service, dengue fever, conflicting event, and women not being able to be photographed for religious or cultural reasons. In these cases, Simon leaves the space blank to represent a "gap" in the bloodline. The second part, made up of text, is a panel composed of Simon's research about the bloodline she is documenting. The final part, is what Simon calls "footnotes". These panels are significantly less orderly than the image and text panels, as they are often images that help contextualize, or supplement additional information. Unlike the first part, these images do not have an orderly system of representation, and are presented in a more rhizomatic structure with the intention of representing information similarly to how it would be obtained in the digital age. The work incorporates elements of photography, text, design, and sculpture.

A Living Man Declared Dead And Other Chapters I - XVIII was exhibited in Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany (2011), Tate Modern in London, England (2011), The Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California (2012), Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York (2012), Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2013), The Pavillion Downtown, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (2013), Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2013), and Le Point du Jour, Cherbourg, France, Taryn Simon (2015).

Chapters I - IX
Chapter I Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapters X - XVIII
Chapter X

Chapter XI

Chapter XII

Chapter XIII

Chapter XIV

Chapter XV

Chapter XVI

Chapter XVII

Chapter XVIII