We are taught from a very young age how to behave in public, we are trained to be; mindful, polite and acceptable. However this drilled in routine was interrupted when I was given the task to blindfold myself and be led around the Collection by a friend. “How bizarre?!” I hear you think and indeed it was! If anything a museum is a place of peace and quiet, where you need be mindful of your surroundings and the priceless artefacts rather than fumbling about.
However this task was insightful, yet this was a very odd experience, I felt very uncomfortable and believed I was on the urge of destroying an Andy Warhol piece at any given moment. But with my worries set aside we still finished this very quickly as it felt far too dangerous and risky not only to the public but also the art work. I felt that I couldn’t voice my concerns and worries to my friend leading me because I would be causing too much of a scene. What I had noticed whilst completing this task was that my senses were heightened and I became aware of an airy silence that engulfed the building, it was not one of youth and joy but left me thinking of a past gone by. The darkness made me question what art is, it made me think that maybe the darkness I was in could be considered art even though it was self inflicted.
This trail of thought led me to think about our senses and what would happen if an audience were left in a dark space, how would that affect a site specific performance and audience in a museum? Being in the darkness as a theatre audience is accepted, you wait for the lights to go down to indicate a performance is going to begin however what would happen if the performance was set in the dark in a museum? Leading on to the thought of what can be created with darkness?
Polish artist Miroslaw Balka took these thoughts of darkness further and created a large chamber suspended in air, the Tate explains that audiences can either enter the chamber or “visitors can walk underneath it, listening to the echoing sound of footsteps on steel, or enter via a ramp into a pitch black interior, creating a sense of unease.” (Tate, 2009) The sense of unease created in the chamber can only be an amplified version of what I personally felt in the museum being blindfolded because I did not have an intense echoing of my feet and I could also hear and feel my friend next to me as comfort, which I am sure would not be much use here.
It goes on to explain the piece “intends to provide an experience for visitors which is both personal and collective, creating a range of sensory and emotional experiences through sound, contrasting light and shade, individual experience and awareness of others, perhaps provoking feelings of apprehension, excitement or intrigue.” (Tate, 2009) The engagement I experienced with The Collection was not as intense as Balka created, I felt more inclined to try and find some support either physically like a wall or from my friend but I did not feel my senses were deprived and all I felt was fear of the darkness and of causing destruction.
Mia
10231466, M. (2014) Fig.1 Blinded Man (February 2014)
Tate (2009) The Unilever Series: Miroslaw Balka: How It Is. [online] London: Tate. Available from http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/unilever-series-miroslaw-balka-how-it [Accessed 24 April 2014].