All public art museums crave to
attract more people through their doors. Attendances often determine how much
sun will shine on them from their funders who in NZ's case are mostly local and
regional authorities. Take Auckland Art Gallery for instance. Its council ‘owner’
Robert Domm, the chief executive of Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA), is
focussed on the Gallery “enhancing its commercial performance” and that
aspiration is a very powerful shaping idea. But, be careful
what you wish for. We found our visit to the Museum of Modern Art dispiriting.
Commercially successful? No doubt but by pulling in the crowds MoMA has
sacrificed what you'd have thought were two of its most important roles; the
protection of works of art and the protection of the experience of those works
of art.
Hundreds of people rushed through the galleries
brushing against paintings, jostling for position in front of famous works and suddenly
stopping dead or lurching away as the audio guide spun them round. The guards
had all but given up in the face of such crowds only occasionally calling “no
flash” if only to prove they even existed. Wow. Meanwhile down the road the
sexy fashion brand Abercrombie & Fitch kept eager punters waiting in a line
outside its Manhattan flagship store until there was space for them to properly enjoy the store. The
priority of A&F (like the Barnes collection in Philadelphia) is the
experience once you get inside and that's what they protect. MoMA's
priority seems to be to take the money and run. Their approach to what the crowds get as an
experience (or rather non-experience) at thirty bucks a head? Not our problem.
Images: top left, crowds form at the ticket office
and right, they’re off, the rush to the ‘best’ galleries. Middle, six deep at
audio tour stops and bottom, shadow play delivers Douglas Gordon’s poignant
video Play dead; real time straight
back to the circus.
