Art Lies, Volume 66, Summer 2010 Page: 65
96 p. : col. ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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-'diL. & R. Anna Craycroft, Subject of Learning/Object of Study; installation views,
The Blanton Museum of Art, Austin; courtesy Tracy Williams, New York;
photos by The Blanton Museum of Art, AustinCraycroft's redesigned e-lounge and reading room, though ostensibly
made for kids, provides little for children that they don't already have in
better form elsewhere. Public libraries, for instance, already give kids the
same types of resources provided by Subject of Learning/Object of Study.
Libraries offer a greater and more diverse selection of books and, as a
time-trusted destination, guarantee use. Craycroft's installation is not
going to be there long enough for a child to form a relationship with the
space-few if any children hang out at the Blanton after school. Moreover,
as most of the books on display were checked out from the University of
Texas libraries, the exhibit actually counteracts its apparent purpose of
broadening educational opportunities. I cross-checked a couple of the
exhibition's titles in the online catalog of the UT Library system. UT's
copies of each title are now listed as "unavailable": the system uses
"unavailable" when the book is reserved for a UT institution, which means
that if anybody goes looking for the book they will neither find it nor be
able to request it. I doubt that the standard Education major or a child
searching Perry-Castaneda Library's children's section will think to go look
in the Blanton instead.
Ironic as this may seem, Craycroft's installation is too pedantic to
genuinely educate. Amongst all the classroomlike apparatuses, I couldn't
help but feel impelled to mull on "education." The concomitant pres-
sure shadowed the exhibition's most visually exciting aspects like the
chalkboards and a mural in the corridor. Instead of enjoying myself, I kept
thinking, "What am I supposed to learn here?" Such feelings are off-putting
and anxiety-inducing, making Craycroft's intended lesson even more dif-
ficult to discern.If Craycroft means Subject of Learning/Object of Study as a place for
adults to meditate on education (and many of the workshops in con-
junction with the installation seem geared towards adults), then the
installation's ability to effectively engage children is of little immediate
concern. Instead, one can understand the exhibition as a low-pressure
environment within which adults may study. Or one can understand it
as presenting possible ways that museums could engage their younger
visitors. In the latter scenario, the child-oriented objects on display are
a facade, a kind of test-lab backdrop for adults to study as a learning
environment. Children-viewers then land in the awkward position of the
studied object, even while adults find themselves situated as oversized
children, which is unnecessarily unpleasant. The title is apt: Craycroft
subjects us, and/or children, to "learning"-here a sort of unresolved
meta-lesson about learning itself-even as we become objects of study.
Ariel Evans is a freelance writer based in Austin and is an Editorial Intern
at Art Lies.65 ART LIES NO. 66
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Gupta, Anjali. Art Lies, Volume 66, Summer 2010, periodical, 2010; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth228031/m1/67/?q=%22Puleo%2C+Risa%22: accessed June 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .