CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 12/3/2016

Teju Cole on 'Taryn Simon: Paperwork and the Will of Capital'

In this weekend's New York Times Magazine, Teju Cole attempts to reconcile his election shock by delving into Taryn Simon's newest body of work—documenting floral arrangements that have graced the tables upon which the world's most important historical treaties and contracts were signed. "Paperwork and the Will of Capital uses a different set of tools to think about political fate," Cole writes. "Powerful men (it is usually men) meet to sign some papers. Afterward, the world is not the same. And yet few of those whose lives are altered by whatever was signed could conceivably trace their circumstances to that event. All they know — all most of us know — is that there are powerful forces in the world that shape our day-to-day realities. Simon’s project brings the scattered light of those forces to clear points of attention." Featured spread is captioned "Nuclear fuel agreement: Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, Brushehr, Iran, February 27, 2005."