Art Lies, Volume 66, Summer 2010 Page: 83
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i -_2_L. Julieta Aranda, Memories of things present #2, 2008; wine glasses,
newspaper, cotton, seeds; dimensions variable; photos by 3ulieta Aranda
R. Installation view, Museum as Hub: In and Out of Context REDUX, New
Museum, New Yorkself-contained, a mesmerizing record of the real-time interaction between
the "journalist," the pen and the paper.
Aranda contributes more material-based but no less conceptual works
to REDUX. Focusing on the mechanics and historical significance of
memory, her project All the memory of the world (We can remember it for
you) begins with a self-made newspaper stacked in the gallery entrance
for visitors to take. The tabloid-style All the Memory of the World includes
juicy articles on "corporate amnesia," "protochronism," "mnemonics" and
"false memory," and biographies of various historical figures and philoso-
phers who proposed theories on memory.
This tabloid spins off into other works, such as a shelf of glass contain-
ers stuffed with wads of the same newspaper, dirt and growing plants; and
a large, hollow plastic rock split in two and stuffed with wadded tabloids.
Nearby, a pedestal is stacked with blank sheets of rough, handmade paper
created from pulped tabloids, and arrayed around the base are glass jugs
of dirty water collected from the papermaking process, stamped with
the phrase "Public Occurrence." It's a strong and poetic metaphor for
the solubility of language and thus memory, which Aranda describes as
"declarative" and subject to contested representations.
REDUX is a good example of what Art Lies feature writerJoanna Fiduccia
describes in this issue as "smart art." I'm not sure what kind of response the
artists and the exhibition intend to elicit from the museumgoer. With the
videos (and to a lesser extent the journals and objects), are we to merely
take in this production by others and digest it however it goes down? This
is in stark contrast to the hand-holding, pedantic approach museums have
historically taken vis-a-vis the viewer. Yet, for all the talk of revolution, Ifelt anesthetized by the tiresome wash of words and lulling video images
instead of shocked, outraged or morally indignant-is that the artists' inten-
tion? Is there a productive use for (or instructive lesson in) stupor?
And "Museum as Hub"-Hub of what? For whom? Although there are
three planned events for the space during the project's three-month run,
visiting the museum in between is a perplexing experience, imparting a
distinct sensation that the action is occurring somewhere else (particularly
when looking at those empty bleachers). How does the experience of
the gallery presentation contrast with the public screenings and discus-
sion components? Is this expanded aspect adequately communicated to
museumgoers when the gallery is quiet?
None of these questions is easy for an art institution to answer when
it engages in "experiments," or new forms of audience engagement, as
so many museums appear increasingly compelled to develop: the read-
ing room, the lecture hall, the lounge, the gymnasium, the video arcade.
At New Museum, the flavor seems to be an aggressive avoidance of
institutional orthodoxy-here, the museum experience is an exchange, a
"collaboration" (read struggle) with terms like interrogation, disputed and
contested. Forget optical pleasure, or any pleasure-this art is a fight to
digest. I don't mean at all to minimize or trivialize the real struggles that
Aranda and company refer to in their projects. But where the rubber hits
the road-that is, for most, in the gallery-Museum as Hub does little to
draw one closer or deeper into their interests. It is a hermetic wheel with
no spokes.
John Ewing is a freelance writer and editor and Copy Editor of Art Lies.83 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/m1/85/?q=%22Puleo%2C+Risa%22: accessed June 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .