The Museum Construct

Why are museums important? 

Museums teach critical thinking and help get people excited about the different forms art can take. They can expand the general knowledge of the public and the different cultures and opens art up for group conversations and open-ended prompts. They have the power to create unity on both a societal and political level and they provide a sense of community  by celebrating human history through the medium of art.

Due to the rise of technology, many people choose to view art from the comfort of their own home. This allows them to focus on only a few aspects of the art world, through a narrow lens. Unless you know what to search for, the art you will see will only be a vary small fraction of the types of art that exists. This can be good in some scenarios where a person has already found the styles of art they like, but if not, you can end up developing 'tunnel-vision' and become unaware of the art that exists.

Museums open up these borders, they show a wide range of art, from realistic paintings, to huge abstract installations. They allow the viewer to expand their definition of art, and develop tastes and references to art they otherwise might not have heard of. 

Museums as Art

Many people view museums like how I just described them, a place to exhibit art. But they can be so much more. The buildings themselves can be art, beautiful architecture and floor planning, maximizing the space, and including the architecture in the art. 

The spaces can influences the artists work, and integrate itself to change the way the art is perceived. High walls can be used to give space around a large painting, or they can be integrated into a installation piece where the ceilings are used to suspend pieces, dangling over the public who visit.

This piece 'Irwin Live' consists of paintings from the 'Was ist Kunst' series installed on the ceiling of the museum, and the Irwin members suspended below them as to appear to be spectators in front of their paintings. The public were then walking underneath the installation looking up at the scene above them. This piece shows how the museum and its structures can be used to create different perspectives and viewpoints for the public.

Magdalena Jetelovά

Jetelovά is a well-known Czech/German artist who uses the surrounding land and architecture to base her pieces around. She deals with the relationship between objects and space and extracts her responses to places from the common context and alters its structure, with the aim of perceiving different interlayers of time and space. 

This piece 'Domestication of Pyramids' was used as a visual metaphor of the Western ideology which involved taking bits of history and placing them in museums for public viewing, hence 'domestication'. The installations deal with the idea of 'oppositional harmony' of the forms, shapes and cultures of the pyramids into the museums and gallery's in which it was placed. The placement of these pyramids were made to look like they had been dropped into place haphazardly, and ripping through walls. Only a small portion of the pyramids are visible, leaving the viewer to imagine where the pyramids start and finish, extending the installations from the walls of the exhibit. 

This is how the museums and spaces themselves can be extended from the four walls they are comprised of, including the architecture into the pieces, and altering how they are perceived by the viewer.