How are our conversations framed by the context of institutions?
When people learn that I write fortunes for a fortune cookie company as a side project, they inevitably ask me to give them my favorite line. And I always answer with this one:
Context is everything.
Apply that aphorism to art and museums and we can all probably agree that the context of the museum elevates the perceived stature of the work, not to mention the value. And surely through museums presentation of socially engaged art, the same is true. But the darker side of the context of museums is that, particularly with this kind of work, institutions can enervate. I liken this phenomenon to putting a polar bear in the San Diego Zoo. Clearly that’s not the animal’s natural habitat.
I’ll bet we all can conjure up memories of seeing socially engaged art by an artist whose work we have admired, but this time in a museum setting, and feeling dissatisfied and even uneasy. Constrained in a highly formal environment, made for a certain kind of visual consumption, bereft of the surprise that comes from spotting an animal in the wild… it falls flat.
Those of us working at museums and trying to sort through the context issue would be rolling in cash if we had a dollar for every time some well-meaning friend said we should just open the enclosure and let the animal run free, but with the museum’s stamp of approval, resources of various kinds, etc. I deeply admire the work of the Queens Museum, particularly with Tania Bruguera. So yes, it can be done. And Queens and Tania show us it can be done really well. But that is some next level business that not all of us are in a position to pursue whether because of $$$$, staffing, or other institutional priorities. What are other ways museums can provide context for socially engaged art without caging it? Documentation (writing, photos, video) support? I have been especially focused on archiving lately. The idea of the archive, is the archive the work, how can I develop an archive for my institution, how can I help artists develop their archives… You get the idea. And I kind of get the idea. But I’m not all the way there yet. I think I might need a little more context in order to sort through all this.
About the contributor: Allison Agsten, Curator of Public Engagement at the Hammer Museum, was appointed in 2010 to lead a new curatorial program focused on creating an exchange between visitors and the museum through works of art. Projects developed in Public Engagement range from Machine Project’s psychoacoustic sculpture in the form of a ping pong table, to Lisa Anne Auerbach’s sequined interpretation of security guard blazers. Agsten previously worked at LACMA and CNN. hammer.ucla.edu