Appropriate Attire (b)

This image is from the series Appropriate Attire that is taken at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City--one of the most congested art museum in the world at all times. In these spaces, we cannot avoid looking at works of art in these spaces without looking at other human beings. However, in contrast to the impression of its filled galleries, I am interested in the temporary lost of individual identity and a sense of isolation that is still highly present in such an environment--galleries and museum spaces that often generate a kind of grey space for a particularly fluid interpretation of the existential status between fine art (such as sculpture and genre paintings) and human bodies.

In this particular image, the woman is listening to her audio guide of the exhibition. I have worked as a tour guide before at museums for and am very suspicious of this new technology that is installed in more and more museums nowadays. Audio guides not only isolate visitors from others, but also from conversations, from a kind of peaceful, aimless wandering and freedom, or quiet meditations with the strangers around us that gallery spaces provide in urban settings. However, this robotic experience of enjoying art seems rarely problematic as we are already conditioned to other parallel ways in absorbing information from our multifaceted screens.