Art Review | Surrounds: 11 Installations at MoMA
A brief consideration of the Museum of Modern Art’s “Surrounds: 11 Installations”
The Museum of Modern Art reopened in October, 2019, after being closed to renovate, expand, and rehang nearly all of their art on display. Largely, their rehanging was an incredible curatorial undertaking, and they did a great job. We’re not considering the rehang, though. We’re considering the 6th floor’s special exhibition — Surrounds: 11 Installations — which, thank god, will have closed by the time anyone reads this review.
Why “Surrounds: 11 Installations” was Bad
Example 1
I almost failed out of architecture school. I certainly would have failed out of architecture school if I glued a bunch of stuff to small wooden blocks, printed out some phrases that try so hard to be provoking but aren’t, sprinkled tiny plastic people around the stuff (for scale!), then called it a day.
If I did that, I sure as shit wouldn’t deserve a few hundred square feet at one of the most important modern art institutions in the world. Surely I wouldn’t.
But this guy did.
Example 2
It’s great when you think of a clever way to display photography. It’s even better when that collection evokes senses of discovery, time, and place through an a-linear but delicately connected narrative.
But don’t let your curatorial gimmick get the best of you… because then it’ll end up like this.
Example 3
If you like making cool YouTube videos about your financial advisor friends who “lost their job during the economic crash of 2008 and became a career mixed-martial-arts fighter,” awesome. MMA fighters are like performance artists — they are top practitioners of their craft, and to win a fight, you have to know precisely how and when to react to your opponent. Kind of like how an artist should know precisely how and why to inject heavy-handed symbolism into their work so they get some kind of point across to the viewers of their work.
Financial crash/Storms/Waves/Water/Blue/Raft/Judo mats/Success
#StraightShootin’ I was viscerally upset by this installation at first. A neat video that was far too long, and a “raft” for seating made out of judo mats that modern day museum goers (mostly: old people, young people who only go to museums for Instagram, and middle-aged people who hate their kids) used as a perfect mid-day nap spot.
While walking around to see how the projection screen was working, I was actually excited by ~8' tall stanchions that appeared to be for sound-dampening. The docent I asked, however, replied, “no, that’s part of the judo mat.” Cool. I don’t care about this installation at all.
Coming Soon
A brief consideration of the good parts about MoMA’s reopening.
