This week I checked out the Instant Narrative exhibition at the museum of art. Instant Narrative, an exhibition by Dora García, turns the museum audience into the exhibition. A blank white screen faces a large open space. People gather to stare at the wall, wondering what this piece is all about. That is when words begin to appear on the screen. At first, people may be under the impression the timing is pre-planned—that is, until they discover the typing is about them. This is the beauty of the exhibit—it’s never the same thing twice, a spontaneous work of art always-already in the making, completely dependent on an audience, completely independent of any external inspiration.
The typist will be one of a handful of students hired by the UMMA. This only adds to the multiplicity of voices participating in the art. I was so interested in how the exhibit worked that I visited a total of 3 times to make sure I was around for different audience sizes and different student writers. The composition of the audience certainly affects what gets written on-screen, but the student writer’s voice is equally important. Some students are highly descriptive of the spectator’s clothing or mannerisms, while others ponder the stories behind the audience members. One student writer even expressed relief that a couple audience members had shown up at all on a particularly slow day.
By my third time visiting the museum, I started feeling a little adventurous. Realizing I was as much an author of the exhibit as García, the museum, or the student writer, I decided to give the current student writer something interesting to write about. So I broke out into a spontaneous dance in the middle of the floor. I got as weird as I possibly could. I start waving my arms around, doing fist pumps, spinning in a circle. I’m sure if I did this at the MOMA I would’ve been kicked out in a second. I actually did seem to upset the security guard standing in the room a little bit—but more on that later. The writer described my strange actions, describing my actions with creative adjectives, even expressing excitement to see an audience member attempt to interact with the exhibit directly.
This brings me to my one fault with Instant Narrative. Although I understand the need for security in a museum full of priceless art, I believe the presence of security guards surrounding Instant Narrative greatly alters the effect of the exhibition, perhaps in a way the artist did not intend (although I do not know much about García’s work so it would not be fair for me to say this). I felt the purpose of the exhibition was that if we look at our lives the right way, everything we do is awe-inspiring, everything we do is a work of art. Instant Narrative is supposed to work because the audience members do not realize they’re being watched at first. I felt watched all 3 times, however, not by the typist, but by the guards. Particularly on my last visit, I felt unwanted, I felt perceived as a threat, and I feel this places problematic limits on the scope of what Instant Narrative can communicate. Now I understand this is a society and we can’t all act like animals, but at the same time I feel like Instant Narrative should open up a space for the audience to get creative, and I think more could be done to make the exhibit feel natural rather than controlled. So go check it out, see if I’m wrong, if I’m crazy, or maybe if I’m even on to something. Only one way to find out.
