speakingforyourself

Reinhold Heller

The importance of technology in a museum is undoubtedly imperative when it comes to finding out not only just information on the museums and its collections but also to enhance the viewer’s museum experience.

Museums are connecting with their visitors through social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, using mobile devices, IPad’s and interactive kiosks, they are involving the public in virtual curating.

Technology offers museums a chance to become more approachable towards the public as well as the exhibitions and art works itself.

As digital technology grows there is drastic change in artist practises, presentations/exhibitions. This includes video art. Through the ever enhancing technology in museums we are able to watch art in high definition giving the viewer a better experience and understanding.

I believe art is a form of communication. In the early years museums were to be said, for the educated, but through time museums has opened its doors to everyone. With the aid of technology museums have used it to engage with their viewers adapting a change in society.

Though researching about technology in museums online and reading forum comments I have come across debates on whether technology ‘spoils’ the public’s experience in a museum. Do tourists become less motivated to visit exhibitions in museums if they can already see what’s inside on a website?

I think there is a significant difference with viewing a painting online to seeing it in person so therefore I think the audience can appreciate the difference as well as take part in the culture of the museum when viewing an artwork in real life rather than through a virtual tour/website.

As for virtual tours of museums, I feel that they can’t quite imitate the museum to its natural environment. The sense of the ‘sublime’ might be lost in translation between the physical and digital, with screens and current digital technologies that cannot quite be replicated. However there are many things that digital representations allow us to do instead and the idea of involving social connectivity with the audience and the art works allows virtual experiences to be more interactive all in a computer or a compact handheld device.

The debate could be ongoing, but when we get past the debate over physical vs. virtual, I think we can begin to see the endless possibilities for museums and museum experiences.

  Reflective Journal

The Walker Art Gallery 16/10/13 (including the David Hockney Exhibition Early Reflections)

  The Walker Art Gallery is a building of exceptional architecture, the stairs leading up towards the entrance of the building gives you a feel of its great importance when entering the gallery. A centre for Fine art and contemporary art, presenting special exhibitions including pieces by the likes of Titian, Rembrandt, Turner, Constable, Sickert, Monet and Cezanne and many more.

The Walker Art Gallery collections consist of a wide range of fine art, contemporary art and graphics with its collections carefully curated and set up categorically from 13th century to the 20th century. As if you were taking a walk in time through the history of the world’s art. Doors are labelled accordingly to the century in which the room’s art works consist of. The paintings in each room entail different eras of art including; medieval, renaissance, Dutch, Flemish, Pre-Raphaelite, Romanticism and many more.

Walking into the institution I couldn’t help but noticed the outstanding décor of the interior inside of the Walker. I was taken back by the large paintings with detailed frames hanging on endless walls of red indicating some kind of royalty. Although, the majority of the rooms I entered are bombarded with paintings squeezing together, I felt that with the amount of space each room has to offer that the vast amount of paintings can be breath taking. With massive pieces from the likes of Titian and Turner leaving me with an over-whelming feeling of not knowing where to look first. I felt the same when coming into the first room you see to the right when entering the Walker. The curating of the sculptures seemed to lack creativity. It’s as if you were surrounded by frozen people, again not knowing where to begin to look. Also the space was quite limited. When looking at works of art I like to look back and take in what’s in front of me but this was difficult to with a sculpture being only yards away from me. I think when it came to the rooms with the graphics pieces and contemporary artworks the curating was more organised in a way and not so claustrophobic. Although I can appreciate the interior décor and design of the majority of the rooms  with red wall paper and vintage frames I found the rooms containing the contemporary artworks, illustrated works and graphic pieces to be more my kind of thing. The white walls, huge spaces and simplicity of the décor I think complements the artworks exhibited. But thinking again I don’t think that would have suited the works of Titans and Rembrandts to be quite honest. I guess what I mean is I enjoy the sense of organisation when it comes to visiting an exhibition instead of huge paintings scattered across a beautiful wall which you can only make out due the amount of paintings over powering the wall.

I think that the organisation is a huge factor when it comes to curating. The way the Walker has specific rooms according to dates printed on the glass doors leaves you expecting to see the paintings maybe in some sort of dated order. I like to follow the paintings around the room but this seemed difficult when all the paintings involving renaissance, pre-Raphaelite and others where I am some way simply scattered across the walls.

The information given next to each painting I sometimes found to be quite limited when giving you a brief description of who the painting was done by, the materials used and the dates. I think that when coming to this museum in order to know about the paintings you would need to be a fairly bit educated in the arts to truly appreciate the works of arts shown in front of you.

I found the architecture of the building to be spectacular. Four huge pillars stand outside of the entrance on top of the stairs giving you the feeling that this building is of great importance. Also looking out from the inside of the building there is an outstanding black fountain which I thought was a great view with being in the city centre. Not only was the building its self, looking from the outside remarkable but the inside was even better. As you walk into the Walker you have the reception in front of you and to the left there are wide stairs leading to the upper floor with huge paintings on the walls giving you an insight of what’s to come. As I approached the upper floor there is a wide circled banister where as I came to look underneath I could see the whole of the ground floor foyer with the café directly underneath me as well as the reception.

As I was in the walker art gallery I thought it would be a good idea to go and see the David Hockney exhibition which was being exhibited from October to March. I felt that this exhibition brings together a unique selection of paintings and prints from one of our most influential and iconic artists of the 20th century. As Ann Bukantas states in her interview Early Reflection (2013)[1] the exhibition takes people through a mini story of his work and aspirations as a young artists. I wanted to know more about the collections so I asked one of the members of staff who was working the exhibition. She told me that the exhibition featured works from the walker’s own collection, including Peter Getting out of Nicks Pool and that it was the winner of the John Moore’s Painting Prize in 1967. As well as that she told me that Early Reflections goes back to the beginning of Hockney’s success, before he became an international icon for art. After looking at Hockney’s pieces I took some time to reflect on the audience around me. I noticed that the audience differed from age. There were older people and young people, the young looked as if to be students like myself. Both seemed to be pleased with what the exhibition was offering. Through one of the doors leading to another part of the David Hockney exhibition there were props to be used by the audience. There was a blonde wig, glasses and suit that appeared to be replicas of Hockney’s. I found this a good way of getting the audience to interact with the art. Putting on the props there was a mirror to look into so you could see yourself, which loads of people were waiting to take turns so I guess the idea of this works. Next to the props was a wall full of sticky notes. I enjoy reading the notes as I do when it comes to reading the books that are left out by other institutions for the public to comment on about their general thoughts and feelings as well as experience when visiting. The majority of sticky notes were positive feedback, possibly from students because most of them were humorous yet optimistic. I took the liberty to write one myself which made me feel like in some way I am contributing to the exhibition by voicing my opinion on a piece of paper. I think that when it comes to interacting with the public in museums it is a huge factor to enhancing the general public’s experience when visiting any institution. Whether it’s using ear phones to hear sound, videos to on interviews of the artist or art that involves the audience and especially notes for people to voice their opinions and share their experiences with the museum and for others to read.

After seeing the David Hockney exhibition early reflections, I decided to visit the gift shop on my way out. I found the gift shop (as of any gift shop in most institutions) to be very good when it came to not only just selling random gits like bouncy balls that don’t relate to the art in the building but gifts with prints of the art works on them like plates, postcards, pens, pencils etc. I spent a good half hour in the gift shop looking at everything. Most institutions can be very limited when it comes to the gift shop mainly just selling books but the Walker Art Gallery seemed to have catered for all types of the public and not just the educated. There were children’s toys and books, ornaments and tea sets for the older generation and posters which I think can be for anyone. The thing that fascinated me the most out of the gift shop was the mini prints of paintings on small cards. To think paying for a small card and taking that home makes you feel like you’re taking a piece of your experience home with you. The same goes for a postcard, sharing your experiences with friends and loved ones from across the world. Although the gift shop was interesting, in my opinion it was very expensive.

3am: wonder, paranoia and the restless night, curated by Angela Kingston, exhibited at the Bluecoat and created by 22 artists captures the theme of 3am, when we feel at our most vulnerable and the encounters witnessed at this time of night. It pushes deep into the darkest of emotions showing paranormal, sociological and astronomical states that occur at this mysterious hour.

The artworks cover a range of topics in relation to wonder, paranoia and the restless night. Sophie Ricketts photographs, called Pissing Women portray woman urinating in the street as they stand giving us the suggestion they have consumed amounts of alcohol after a night out. Natural animalistic behaviour that can happen at 3am when under the influence of alcohol.

Anthony Goicolea’s videos Sleepers shows a lamp lit cul-de-sack with what seems to be figures in sleeping bags and in the distance a motor way with the sound of wind and cars. Almost ghost like with noises of gust and the sleeping bags blowing nearby. The other video shows torches penetrating the woods with noises of footsteps fading into the abyss.

Heading upstairs into the next room the artworks by Danny Treacy are presentenced with life-size portrait photographs capturing the theme of urban street clothes with a blackened background. As if being watched by these life-sized portraits the sound of unsettling mysterious music from the down stairs creates the atmosphere of being victim to these disturbing surreal representations. The photographs are arranged on opposite sides of the room giving you the sense of enclosure and vulnerability.

In the middle of the room is Nathan Mabry’s sculpture Process Art (Eat Your Heart Out) displaying an innocent terrified looking young boy wearing one boot with a monster riding on his shoulders. This dream like second world monster perhaps symbolizes a distressed child who has his worst fears on his shoulders.

Graphite sketches by Mark Hulson signifies of what seems to be dark corners of inside a house. Paranormal figures in the house maybe possessed family members and a staircase exposes the sinister spine chilling domestic state of what homes conceal in darkness.

The First booth in the long gallery is Michael Palm and Will Dormer’s video Body Trail. This video shows an abandoned city and what looks like corpses piled together in phone boxes and street corners. Streets almost zombie like, cluttered with trash exploiting the derelict time of the city.

Fred Tomaselli’s Portrait of Jim is a blackened background with stars named after drugs like LSD, Novocaine and more. All drugs that can be associated with paranoia. To the left is an image of what could be the drug takers brain or vision when under the influence of drugs.

The Punta Della Dogana, a building of exceptional architecture, a centre for contemporary art presenting exhibitions of works by Marlene Dumas, James Lee Byars, Lynn Foulkes and many more.

As entering the reception of the Punta Della Dogana you are approached by the repetitive and aggressive cries of a clown in a video ‘No, No, Museum’, performed to the point of self-humiliation in different orders of ridiculous actions. Work by Bruce Nauman born 1941 makes you think what Nauman likes to consider as art.

To the entrance of the museum the soundtrack of cease-less rainfall is taken from the TH.2058 installation and is transposed as we enter, creating Raining, a sound environment produced by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster that is haunting and menacing.

On the upstairs floor is Marlene Dumas’s artworks. Focusing on human figures Dumas representing her state of mind and the relationship between love and death. Exhibited works are the likes of Momma Roma, Forsaken, Hommage to Michelangelo and Angels in uniform. Although Marlene’s art being an interest of mine I think the work presented to us in this gallery is sub-standard compared to the other works I have seen of hers.

A few rooms down are works of Roman Opalka, the obsessively and systematically faintly painted numbers on a white canvas is enough to explain Opalka’s work.

Skipping the next room you come to the work of Abel Abdessemed. Making political violence, life, suffering and death his work is deeply critical and metaphorical. Four life-sized sculptures of Christ made of razor wire, the sort to be used at Guantanamo Bay detention camp are hung on the wall in front of you. The repeated representation of Christ confers to the fundamental principal of unicity. The material used turns god, the basis of faith and love, into a symbol of danger.

The room leading on is works of Bridget Riley. Static 2, one of her first paintings among the most difficult to analyse, in which black oval spots are arranged in a grid across a white canvas. You look at this piece and feel slightly unbalanced. Whether it’s the un-symmetrical dots or the subtle meaning of Riley’s work.

The last room you advance to brings contemporary artworks of Shusako Arakawa, architect, conceptual artist and poet. Arakawa developed a philosophy of ‘Reversible Destiny’, a fantasy about defying the age process. Combining words, scientific diagrams and colours the artist demonstrates that reality can be deceitful and that seeing is not always sufficient.