A guide to slow looking. The Tate.
"A visit to a museum or art gallery can sometimes be an overwhelming experience. With so many works on display, trying to see everything can feel like a race against the clock. Studies have found that visitors to art galleries spend an average of eight seconds looking at each work on display.
But what happens when we spend five minutes, fifteen minutes, an hour or an afternoon really looking in detail at an artwork? This is 'slow looking'. It is an approach based on the idea that, if we really want to get to know a work of art, we need to spend time with it.
Slow looking is not about curators, historians or even artists telling you how you should look at art. It's about you and the artwork, allowing yourself time to make your own discoveries and form a more personal connection with it."2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/art/guide-slow-looking> [Accessed 16 March 2022].
2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/art/guide-slow-looking> [Accessed 16 March 2022].
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I really like the idea of slow looking I find it shocking that viewers spend an average of eight seconds looking at a piece of art and I want to try to make my work demand the attention of the viewers making them look at my work more deeply, and for a longer period of time, in order to try to figure out what they are looking at. Galleries force us to view pieces of art in a certain way directing us around the pieces with arrows on the floor or tape mapping out the way. Galleries present each piece separately, mounted in the middle of a white wall, creating a uniformed line of pieces in which we que to view. It would be rude to linger and hold up the que right? So we move on to the next without really taking in what we just looked at. Therefore I want my pieces to be presented together each piece interesting in there own right yet displayed together to stray from the norm, getting rid of the arrows and ques that we are so used to. I want my viewers to stare at my work, and have to work out what they are looking at maybe even interact with the work. What are they going to remember more? A piece they spent eight seconds looking at or a collection of works grouped together in a beautiful chaos that they were able to stare at and touch and interact with.
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Ghada Amer.
Ghada Amer is a contemporary artist who uses issues such as gender and sexuality to create her work. Her work involves pornographic images which she layers with acrylic paint and embroidery. I really like this artists work due to the fact that the longer you look at the piece the more figures you are able to see, at first glance it just looks messy and then your eyes begin to see the different females faces. I love how this artist has used acrylic paint and embroidery to create her layers if it was done in all one media I don't think the results would be as good. I want to add a layered element to my own work to try to create a complex set of pieces that attracts the viewer and holds their gaze.
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PARTICIPATORY ART
"Participatory art is a term that describes a form of art that directly engages the audience in the creative process so that they become participants in the event."
I really like the idea of adding a participatory aspect to my artwork as if I am wanting the viewer to spend a little more time looking and engaging with my work, I cant think a better way then to get them involved in the creation progress.
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Felix Gonzalez- torres.
I really like this piece of work due to the fact that it involves the viewer. Felix Gonzales-Torres has created a piece using 175 pounds of candy. The idea of the piece is for the viewers to each take a piece of candy so the weight of the work would slowly decrease. The creator of this piece of work dedicated the piece to his lost love who sadly died of AIDS. therefore this piece doesn't only represent the horrible disease it also represents the love of the people left behind who have lost loved ones to the disease. it is interesting that the weight of the piece of artwork is the same of the average body weight of an adult male therefore the artist may have done this to show the rapid decrease in weight as the illness takes over the body. I also think the use of the candy may be relevant maybe suggesting that he still viewed his lost love as sweet and beautiful even to the last minute no matter how much the disease took away. I love this piece due to the amount of thought and raw emotion the artist has put into the work I feel like it is an amazing way to spread awareness and to get viewers to pay attention.
Marcel Duchamp.
"Accounts of the experience of viewing the exhibition vary. Some said the twine was like a guide, directing them toward paintings. Others saw it as a metaphor for the complexities of contemporary art, saying that its presence “symbolized literally the difficulties to be circumvented by the uninitiate in order to see, to perceive and understand, the exhibitions.” Many of the participating artists were upset, insistent that visitors to the show would be unable to actually see the paintings that they had struggled to get out of war-torn Europe". (His Twine: Marcel Duchamp and the Limits of Exhibition History - ICA Philadelphia, 2022)​
I on the other hand love this exhibition i think that the pieces of work being covered by the string is very interesting it makes the gallery stand out and be remembered. i like how the artist has used the string as a sort of guide they have forced the viewers to view the work in the way and order he wants them to. I don't think the sting takes away from the pieces I think it only enhances them and maybe even makes some of the less interesting pieces stand out more. I defiantly like the idea of covering my work with string as it adds an air of mystery to the work.
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