Taryn Simon lived in John F Kennedy International Airport from November 16 through November 20, 2009. JFK processes more international passengers than any other airport in the United States. Contraband includes photographs taken 24 hours a day of over 1000 items detained or seized from passengers and express mail entering the U.S. from abroad. Over five days, in both the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Federal Inspection Site and the U.

S. Postal Service International Mail Facility, Simon documented items including counterfeit American Express travelers checks, overproof Jamaican rum, heroin, a dead hawk, an illegal Mexican passport, deer penis, purses made from endangered species, Cuban cigars, counterfeit Disney DVDs, khat, gold dust, GHB concealed as house cleaner, cow manure tooth powder, counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags, prohibited sausage, undeclared jewelry, steroids and an ostrich egg. This catalog presents an edited version, selected by the artist, from the more than 1000 items she recorded. Taryn Simon was born in New York in 1975. Her recent work, An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, opened at The Whitney Museum of American Art, revealing that which is integral to Americas foundation, mythology and daily functioning, but remains inaccessible or unknown to a public audience. Her earlier work, The Innocents, opened at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, documenting cases of wrongful conviction in the United States and investigates photographys role in that process.

She is a graduate of Brown University and a Guggenheim Fellow. Permanent collections include: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Tate Modern; Whitney Museum of American Art; Centre Pompidou; Museum Fur Moderne Kunst; and Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Co-published with Gagosian Gallery, New York.