"Truth Be Told" – is it a sign or art? The village made it's decision, but it's still going to Brooklyn.
"Truth Be Told" …is it a sign or art? The village made it’s decision, but it’s still going to Brooklyn
Kinderhook is one of those quiet and quaint Hudson Valley villages lined with historic brick buildings and once-truly opulent riverside estates that abut the rural backbone of its agriculturally-fueled community.
In the middle of that village is the former Martin Van Buren Elementary and High School, a 30,000-square-foot 1929 Federal Revival-style building on Broad Street. In 2013, The School was purchased by gallery owner Jack Shainman for $550,000 as a storage space and as a place to exhibit large works.
One such work, “Truth Be Told” a site-specific project by Chicago-based artist Nick Cave and his design partner Bob Faust, was installed in late October of 2020 as part of the gallery’s “States of Being” initiative, as a response to the killing of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement and the 2020 Election.
Cave calls the piece “an artwork and act of protest … an illumination of propagated falsehoods throughout American history through to today.”
The Village of Kinderhook initially considered the piece to be – technically – a sign, and not art, and, more importantly, that The School’s special use permit doesn’t cover it.
Over 30 speakers took to the Zoom platform to voice their concerns on the village’s decision during a public comment meeting on Monday, January 25, 2021.
Hours before that public meeting (the first on the matter), the remnants of “Truth Be Told” were being peeled from the facade of The School building by workers in a boom lift. The piece was already set to leave town after completing it’s planned three month run with the gallery on January 31, but no comment from the gallery on why the piece was removed on the morning of January 25, just hours before the public hearing.
Workers remove the vinyl remnants of “Truth Be Told” on Monday morning, hours before the public hearing with the Village of Kinderhook Zoning Board of Appeals. Photo by Larissa Carson.
During the public hearing, the Village of Kinderhook Code Enforcement Officer Peter Bujanow explained how an employee at the Jack Shainman Gallery contacted him via email about the project’s plans, but never submitted a formal application for review.
The School’s initial special use permit was issued on the condition that the gallery would have to notify the village code enforcement officer of a request to review “external changes to the building or new signage” since it is zoned as part of the historic district. Shainman has previously asked for variances from the village’s zoning board of appeals (ZBA) to hang banners on the building to promote upcoming shows, and the ZBA has previously granted those variances.
“The School is in a residential area in the village’s historic district surrounded by other historic buildings like the Burgoyne House, The Benedict Arnold House and the Kinderhook Reformed Church,” Village of Kinderhook Mayor Dale Leiser stated during a recent meeting. He believes “all the boards take pride in what they do in the historic district.”
The village’s Zoning Code Enforcement Officer (CEO) was also initially “concerned with the flammability of the material and if the wrapping was going to cover the windows and doors” of the historic building. The initial proposal said the project would consist of using a heat gun to adhere the 3M vinyl film wrapped around the building. The CEO deemed the proposal was not in compliance with the village zoning, but “Shainman decided to move ahead” with the project regardless.
“My concern is not about whether it’s art, it’s about what the code says,” the Village CEO Peter Bujanow said during Monday night’s public meeting.
“It is ironic that a work promoting truth-telling has been met with distrust and deceit,” the artist says in an open letter and accompanying Change.org petition on the gallery's website. “Censorship is a crime against communities, progress, and enlightenment, not individuals. I know that the town of Kinderhook is not censoring the words I’ve formed, but rather the meaning that they’ve assigned to them and in turn the ability of others to have access to my provocation.”
(Editor's note: The open letter and petition created by the gallery owner and artist refer to the town board, but The School is part of the Village of Kinderhook and its zoning jurisdiction).
During the January 25 public hearing, one village neighbor that lives directly across from The School on Broad Street stated that, as part of the historic village designation, “we knew what was expected of us and our neighbors. Then things began to happen … we began to see that the zoning code and verbal assurances would not be enforced. Clearly they did not have to play by the same rules.”
Gallery owner Jack Shainman, center, was present during Monday night’s public hearing on “Truth Be Told,” but did not speak when asked for comment on the issue.
While Shainman was present during Monday night’s virtual public hearing, he did not comment when prompted by the ZBA chairman, and instead left his cause to his attorney and fellow high-profile supporters across the art world including Joe Thompson, founding director of MassMOCA, the COO of the Brooklyn Museum, and another artist who told the board they should “bend over backwards to accommodate” Shainman and Cave.
While a majority of the evening’s 30-plus speakers clearly supported the artistic merits of the piece, Alexandra Anderson, former editor for the Village Voice who has lived in Columbia County since the 1970s, stated: “I’m thrilled he’s exhibiting in the village [but] it’s not about censorship, it violated village codes. We have to obey our codes or we lose our historic district.”
"They are censoring the words of a Black man in a moment when our country, more so than ever, is divided on the basic principles of fact and fiction," Cave writes in the open letter. "This is not about me, but about those who come after. I am not the one who stands to lose."
At the end of the 3-plus-hour public hearing, CEO Bujanow said the “discussion has gone to a different level. It’s the law I refer to. There needs to be understanding on how zoning works, and how every municipality takes that charge. What my charge is, is in that blue book.”
"Truth Be Told" will be heading to Brooklyn after the director of the Brooklyn Museum signed on to the gallery's open letter.
Due to the length of the public hearing, the Village Zoning Board of Appeals continued their regular meeting on February 2, 2021, and ruled that the piece was “a political message and art for temporary period of time and therefore Kinderhook Village Code does not apply to regulate the exhibit as a sign.”
Have you seen the piece in person? Let us know what you think – join the conversation on the HVNY Instagram page, or comment below.