Examining Gallery Displays

It seemed like an odd assignment, going to an art gallery to look at how the pieces are displayed instead of the pieces themselves. But one probably has never taken the time to think about the space the paintings or statues are in unless they are told to. Surprisingly, the area is just as interesting as the pieces.

The Lost Boys of Sudan exhibit featured paintings of images that allude to a child like experience of something very brutal. The space was dimly lit and the walls were almost as brown as the paint used in the skins of the figures in the pieces. It was almost insulting given how powerful the images are. I noticed that people just walked right on by, not paying attention to the paintings unless they saw someone standing in front of them. It was as if the long hallway had nothing on the walls because of the brown tone matching so well with the earthy colors of the paintings. In fact, I still wonder if anyone consciously knew about the exhibit instead of stumbling upon it like so many of the people I saw.

The main show at the Frist Center, African Voices, was more offensive than the free exhibit. The entrance to the appeared to be set up as if it was a theme park attraction rather than a themed gallery show. Faux wood fabric strips arranged in a way that mocked a tree trunk served as dividers for most of the rooms, which were darkly lit for the most part. The only lights that were in the area were all soft lights, aimed at the various masks, statues, and costumes that were shown. Every item, for the most part, were lit in a way that looked similar to the way the History Channel lights their shots for the same artifacts. The offensive part of this exhibit comes from the fact that the only well lit area is in the area themed to show the contemporary art pieces shown from South Africa. Ironically, this area is also the only one with white walls. It is as if after walking through 90% of the show, I am being told that everything I just saw wasn’t art. Here is where the art is, is what the gallery was trying to tell me, in this white space with all these hot light on all of these images and statues. I was pretty much being told that all the items of historical and artistic value in the previous rooms didn’t matter.

In the gray area of the exhibit--which ironically had gray walls--there was a video that I believe tells how I feel about the exhibit pretty well. In the video loop, footage of African dances are played out. Some of the dances are done in a theatre setting where two white males and one Asian male accompany a cast of native Africans as they display their culture’s various dances. Inter-cut with this footage is home video images of the same types of dances as they happened in the streets of Africa. The difference between the two is that the images from Africa are more raw and give off a sense of magic more than the seemingly rehearsed and properly lit theatre versions. Much like the dances in the video that were preformed in the theatre, the exhibit doesn’t properly display the real African arts properly.

About 24 hours later and after much reading for the other half of this assignment, I wrote the following.

The world is not only flat, it is starting to blur. Galleries are trying to be museums; museums are trying to be galleries; theme parks start to look like art galleries; art galleries are starting to look theme parks. What is it that the world is trying to show to the people that live in it? That we are same? Or maybe that we really don’t know how to show to each other what it is that makes our individual cultures worth learning?

With this in mind, the way the Frist Center displays their African Voices exhibit proves that I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about! Most of the items on display are lit in a manner that is akin to historical museums, making the dark setting and dim lighting convey a sense of holiness and an ancient awesomeness equal only in biblical proportions. And for them to light the more contemporary pieces as if this area is an art gallery is justified. After all, those pieces are more art pieces than historical or cultural artifacts.

That being said, the Lost Boys of Sudan exhibit is probably more offensive than I previously thought. The paintings against a brown wall, a brown close to the skin color of those that live in Sudan, in a dimly lit area are presented neither as art in a gallery or as historical records of a culture worlds away from Nashville. They are just there, almost as if without purpose other than to line a hallway that functions as a free gallery for the community. Something to fill empty space and nothing more. They are not lit in any way that could help them pop out of the brown wall that they are on.

I don’t know what to think about galleries or museums now. Here are two equally important exhibits, but only one gets the attention it deserves while the other, because it is free, gets nothing more but a frequently traveling route for patrons to distract themselves as they head towards either the café or the parking lot. And even with the seemingly more important show, the one that takes up the most floor space, the space confuses me. Am I suppose to be in a museum or a gallery? Am I looking at a collection of art or a collection of historical items from a culture on the other side of the ocean?

I guess the big question here is what am I looking at and why should I be looking at?