I haven't written a blog post in about a year or so, but that's okay. I was going to make a new blog as I feel like I have all these new ideas in my head swimming around and that this one with its old posts wasn't a suitable platform. But I don't mind having them here I guess, I'd rather have old posts to build upon rather than write an awkward introductory post on a new blog.
That isn't to say that this post itself isn't something of an awkward introductory post ...
I want to talk about museums tonight, more specifically about people's behaviour in art galleries/museums/gallery spaces/etc ... There's an unwritten Code of Conduct that somehow exists and must be followed once you are in the white cube space and if you break it you're seen as an uneducated pleb that doesn't understand art. That's probably why everyone acts the same in art galleries, so that they're seen as smart.
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| Thomas Struth / Museum Photographs (1989-2000) |
It's the same in every gallery I've been to, and I'm certainly guilty of doing the same. People first enter the art gallery, and almost immediately turn to their left. According to some of my art history lecturers who also have curated shows, this is a thing most people do when they enter a gallery space. Anyway..
What most people do is walk around the room, in a clockwise direction, slowly, pausing ever so often to read the label beside the artwork or to look at the artwork itself. Nobody really talks, and if they do, they whisper. It's the Code of Conduct of Walking Around Galleries and Looking at Art.
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| Midnight in Paris (2011) / jolieing |
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| Midnight in Paris (2011) / jolieing |
I believe it's the overall aura of the museum that has become incredibly restricting and has taken the enjoyment out of visiting galleries. This 'aura' I'm talking about is purely imaginative but it's reinforced by the museums acting as surrogate cathedrals with its high ceilings, where the paintings on the walls act as icons and altarpieces. The stark contrast of artwork and the white wall gives the works an ephemeral quality and the quietness in gallery spaces, where only the clip-clop of heels or shuffle of tennis shoes can be heard, supports the idea of the museum space as a church interior. So obviously, museums are treated in a religious manner and not viewed as something that have educational purposes.
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| Tate Britain / rimbly |
Of course there are going to be people who don't view museums as places of worship but rather as places that are moreso boring and reserved for the higher classes/academics.
In other words, there's a stigma that surrounds the art gallery (and especially galleries of modern/contemporary art...).
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| A child climbs on a Donald Judd sculpture in Tate Modern / Children in Museums: it's the Parents Who Need Training |
With the new generation of the 'millenials' and the '90s kids' I feel like it's our job to challenge the authoritative voice of the museum (but not to the extent that we'd climb into priceless sculpture!!!) by going against the grain of the conventional behaviour in gallery spaces.
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| Thomas Struth / Museum Photographs (1989-2000) |
Walk around the gallery space for as long as you want. Zig-zag around the room from painting to painting, ignore the people swimming in the space in a clockwise direction. Sit down on the floor, draw the artworks. Get to know them. Come up with stories about the people in the paintings, the shapes of the sculptures, the curiosities of the installation art that nobody really gets. Make up your own meanings. Interpret freely. Don't read the labels (or read the labels?) Write down in a notebook what you like about the gallery space.
Take as little or much time as you want. You don't HAVE to look at all of the artworks in the museum in one visit, you will probably return in the future. Pick up a couple of works you are excited about seeing and look at them in more detail. Contemplate their form, the artists' motives and ideas, or just adore their beauty.
But most of all, don't feel pressured to have some sort of enlightening experience in the gallery. Relax. Have fun. Take it easy.
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| Alécio de Andrade / The Louvre and it's Visitors (1965-1994) |
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| Alécio de Andrade / The Louvre and it's Visitors (1965-1994) |
