The Writing on the Wall
On Friday night I saw the writing on the wall… and it was mine.
It is a strange sensation to walk into a museum — a real museum, not Covenant’s Art Barn — and see one’s own words plastered on the wall. It is even stranger to see well-appointed museum donors, art history department professors, and unsuspecting members of the public intently reading those words so seriously.
Should I caution them? Should I warn them that those imperious museum object labels that appear so definitive and confident were written by… a grad student? Should I sidle up and ask if it makes sense?
Last semester, I interned for the dean of the Sam Fox School of Art and Design as he curated his exhibition On the Margins, a show of (very!) contemporary art which explores themes of war, disaster and displacement. I functioned largely as a research assistant, compiling files on each of the artists and artworks, assembling an annotated bibliography for sources dealing with visual depictions of war and disaster, composing artist biographies for the exhibition catalogue and writing wall text.
While the act of writing artist biographies and wall text is not in and of itself exhilarating, the payoff is — as this weekend proved — rather extraordinary. First off, it makes for a nice line on the good ol’ professional curriculum vitae. Second, wealthy museum donors invite you to quite lovely private receptions where you will be fed bacon-wrapped scallops, mini crab cakes, and excellent wine. Third, you get invited to tag along with the artists who come into town for the exhibition opening. This means that you get to go on a private tour of the Putlizer Foundation’s Dan Flavin exhibition with Mrs. Pulitzer, assorted area curators, and artists Willie Doherty, Willie Cole, Jane Hammond, and Thaddeus Stroud. It’s all very surreal.
Also, you feel slightly obligated to wear more black than usual so you can fit in with the curators.
The moral of the story, dear reader and visitor-of-museums, is that you should never fully entrust yourself to the wall text. It may have been written by a grad student who just needed to get a good meal.
april said:
on February 10, 2008 at 11:57 pm
you’re so cool! i love that for you. thanks for sharing
myshoes said:
on February 16, 2008 at 1:42 pm
i often wonder about the personal lives of museum wall-text writers. this is especially true when i encounter particularly philosophical and/or subtly witty wall-text.
i’m thankful for this little glimpse into a wall-writer’s world.
sara said:
on February 21, 2008 at 2:31 pm
hi elissa – i don’t know if you remember me. sara inouye. we did gymnastics together. i hope you remember, otherwise this could be awkward. anyway, i’m not really sure how i ended up on your page or how i figured out it was you (you got married!), but i have. it sounds like you’re doing well. if you’re not too busy, drop me an e-mail. i’d love to hear more about what you’re doing! my e-mail address is sarainouye@gmail.com. this has distracted me from my work for long enough, so i hope you get this and get a chance to e-mail me! take care!