Exhibition design can make or break a show in a museum. Do it wrong, and the visitor response could be irritation, feeling stupid, or even worse, walking right pass the show entrance. Do it right, and it becomes like a subconscious guide, revealing the power of objects and a story to tell.
With design in mind, think to your own experiences in museum exhibitions: Was there one that resonated with you in part because of effective design? Or was there one that fell flat because elements interfered with your appreciation of artworks or your overall takeaway? Recount your experience using details of a specific show, museum location, and design aspects in at least four sentences. Feel free to jog your memory with a bit of research, and post your entry no later than 5pm, Monday, October 24. Thanks!
One exhibit design that interested me was at the Renwick Gallery. When I walked in right away I felt like I was a part of something. The work captivated me. Most of the work was large scale and visitors had the ability to get very close to it and walk right near it and even through it in some cases. Having this interaction so close with the artwork gave me a deep appreciation for it and the show itself because I felt very connected.
ReplyDeleteThe MOMA'a 2014 Robert Heinecken exhibit, "Object Matter", really fascinated me with the way they displayed his photographs that have been represented in alternative ways to the typical medium of a photograph that one would expect. I remember walking onto the floor that the exhibit was on and immediately seeing the large letters reading Heinecken's name in a bold font with the exhibition title over top in a transparent style and this immediately drew me into the exhibition space. The exhibition included many large scale works of Heinecken's such as magazine covers and figure cut-outs, as well as small images organized into groups. There was also a video projector playing and a few of his pieces were under glass which showed the process of one of his three-dimensional pieces. Overall, the pieces were the main focus and the wall text played a small part, which is something that I feel really makes the viewer think harder and stare longer at the piece to figure out what is going on from their own point of view rather than being told and moving on. Further, the ways the exhibit displayed the pieces made me feel more connected to the artist's process.
ReplyDeleteAn exhibit the interested me was "Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World" at the National Museum of the American Indian. The exhibit focuses on the spiritual relationship between humankind and the natural world of American Indians. What made it memorable was the overall experience that it gave off. The space had a natural flow to guide you through the exhibit and variety of artifacts in various sizes and videos of legends and stories that communicated their message. The museum also painted the walls to look like the sky at night with music playing to transport the visitor.
ReplyDeleteThis past spring, I attended “Rodin: Evolution of a Genius” at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia. This travelling exhibition aimed to educate the visitor about all different aspects of Auguste Rodin’s work (plaster, bronze, marble, ceramics), as well as background information into the process involved with creating the works in each medium. I enjoyed this exhibition, in part, because I came away feeling affected by pieces other than the famous sculptures such as “The Thinker.” When I entered the show, I knew nothing about Rodin besides the fact that he made “The Thinker.” I really appreciated that the exhibition was able to show the classics pieces that so many people are excited to see while still providing other interesting pieces. My favorite part of the exhibition was getting to look at all of the miniature scale models that were used to help form the casts Rodin would use in crafting the actual sculptures. The curator decided to display the miniatures nearby their full-size counterparts, and I loved being able to stand in one place and see both the initial designs and the finished works. Because I was able to quickly look back and forth between the two and see all that had gone in to creating the larger works, my appreciation for the larger works was heightened. This exhibition also did a great job in providing background into Rodin’s actual process for creating the plaster and designing the sculptures. For someone who knew nothing going in, this “nuts and bolts” information was extremely helpful. I thought that this was a very well put-together exhibition!
ReplyDeleteOne exhibit I really love because of its design is titled “Road to Tokyo” at the National WWII Museum. The minute you walk through the doors you’re in a recreated briefing room aboard an aircraft carrier. As I walked onto the next set of display cases, I realized that I was now supposed to feel like I was inside of a submarine. This whole exhibit made me feel as If I was riding or trekking through the Pacific Theater of the war, especially in the Guadalcanal section. There were trees all around and rainbows reflected on the ground, which reminded me and other visitors about how rainy these islands were. Each artifact on display paired with a panel that explained its significance, and these were all well placed throughout the whole exhibit to teach visitors about the submarine they were supposedly standing in or island they were hopping to. I left with new knowledge as well as a greater interest in the Pacific because of how this exhibit was set up. It inspired me to want to learn more.
ReplyDeleteOne of my all-time favorite exhibition designs is in the Ocean Hall of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in D.C. The first time I went into the hall I was completely awestruck by the humongous whale hanging from the ceiling. The scale of it towering over me made me feel so small, but not scared; I was so amazed just to know that a creature existed in the world that could even be that big. Its enormity, paired with the blue lighting in the space, made me feel like I could actually be swimming around in the ocean, and that calming color permeating the whole space gave the hall such a soothing and kind of contemplative feel. The exhibition design made me feel so involved in something so much bigger than my typical day-to-day middle schooler life, and, I remember that, after being in that exhibition for a while, nothing else we saw in the museum after that could top it, and I spent the rest of the day wishing to be back in that blue hall.
ReplyDeleteI went to the exhibition “Treasures from Heaven - A Special Exhibition of the Artifacts from the Holy See” in National Palace Museum in Taiwan. The exhibition shows the artifacts from Vatican. The design of the exhibition was solemn but didn’t impress me too much. First of all, the design of the entrance was not very appealing. I saw many people passed by and didn’t want to go inside to take a look. The sequence of the exhibition wasn’t well organized. There were six sections in the exhibition, but it’s hard to see the logic of the sequence and the connections among them. The scale of the exhibition was small, so having six sections made every element fragmented. All I saw were many objects and display cases but I didn’t feel I was in a Roman Catholic Church. Every object in the exhibition seems to be separated from one another. They didn’t compose as a whole story for me. The design of the visitor flow was forced march. However, I remember before I went to one section, there was a route leading to other direction, making me confused where to go. Later I found out if I went that route, I would have missed many objects. I was very confused in the section of The Liturgical Year. Two pie charts shows the different seasons in the Catholic year at the beginning of this section, but some holidays on the following displays were not showed on the charts. Moreover, less environmental graphic design was in the exhibition. One of them was an altar, which was designed beautifully. However, the steps of the altar were not obvious. I saw someone almost stumbled by them. I feel the exhibition design didn’t engage me and didn’t spark my curiosity to know more about the theme and objects.
ReplyDeleteWhile visiting Southern France on a study abroad trip in2015, our tour group had the chance to view the Traditional Museum in the village of Auvillar. The museum itself was established in the early 20th century and preserves representative artifacts of major crafts and trades from the city such as pottery and agricultural machinery. The single ‘row-house’ in the village center was packed with devices (some working) and pieces of china and other artwork to the point where each successive room wrapped the viewer in the rich history of the locale. I don’t believe that the quantity of pieces in the space was overstimulating to the point of being detrimental to the immediate viewer experience. However, the thorough information provided on each label and the architecture of the house combined with the quantity of pieces doesn’t exactly lend itself to ease of differentiation between each piece for visitor recall.
ReplyDeleteLast year, I visited the Hirshhorn and went to see an awesome exhibit: Barbara Kruger: Belief+Doubt. The exhibit was located on the basement floor of the museum, and we had to ride the escalator down in order to reach the exhibit; the escalator was located in the center of the room. Right away, I felt as though I was being immersed in a pool of loud noise; it wasn't really loud audibly, but the large, bright red blocks and stripes along with the stark black and white text made a lot of visual noise. All of the text was uppercase and surrounded the entire space. Every inch of the floor, the escalator, and the walls were covered in text that were meant to question or challenge our thoughts. Many of the texts were questions like, "who does the crime? who does the time?", and statements like, "belief + doubt = sanity," and "forget everything." The exhibit was a great experience and, from what I could tell, was meant to leave a lasting impression on all of the visitors that enter and make them question their own thoughts and beliefs.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of a very well-designed Museum space, I immediately think of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. As soon as you walk into the building, you are just surrounded by aircrafts suspended in the air by wire, from a variation of decades. There are big signs hanging from the ceiling saying where each exhibit can be found, and the directions are very simple and easy to understand. The individual exhibits are located in their own separate parts of the museum, but are so bold and unique, that they are set apart from every other part of the museum. For example, when I visited the Air and Space museum, I wanted to find the exhibit of planes from the World Wars, and the front entrance was so decorated by displayed and a big title that I found what I was looking for immediately. Each exhibit was organized nicely, distributing their appropriate planes and other artifacts evenly, so that my overall experience of the exhibit was not that of a chaotic cluster.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I visited the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, which has one of the biggest collections of Russian fine art in the world. It is a large gallery with various exhibition rooms and the design of some rooms is altered to fit the theme of the exhibition it houses, but for the most part, the gallery building is bright and well-lit. The exhibition that impressed me the most was the room that held works by Mikhail Vrubel. Vrubel’s art has a very distinctive style and primarily a dark color palette; the subject matter of his works is quite different from what was depicted by the Russian artists at that time. The figure of demon was a regular entity depicted by the artists, who had spent the last nine years of his life in an asylum. The room with his exhibition was small, the walls were painted in dark grey color and the lighting was dim. This was a perfect setting to convey the melancholy and sadness of the Vrubel’s works.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most memorable museum exhibits that I attended was the Tim Burton one at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City back in 2009. I think this is especially cool, because it's been seven years, and I have been to numerous shows at the MoMA since then, and this is the one that still sticks in my mind the most. The layout of the exhibit was very immersive -- for example, the lighting throughout most of the exhibit was dim, in other places there were black lights, which gave it a spooky feel very present in a lot of Tim Burton's movies. What is especially cool was that all parts of the space -- the walls, floor, lighting, and even the entrance to the exhibit, were all part of the artwork. These aspects were integral to the experience itself. What made the exhibit interesting was that is was a very cool, pop culture topic, but what made it memorable was the way they designed the exhibit itself.
ReplyDeleteOne exhibit that really stuck out to me was Kehinde Wiley’s “A New Republic” at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The show focused on raising questions of race, gender, and politics. I was fortunate enough to attend the information session the museum gave to employees prior to the show going public. I got to know a little bit of background information and a schedule of the events that went along with the exhibition. Going into it for the first time I was amazed at the detailed, massive paintings before my eyes. They were exhibited to where you begin with his early works, so the first room has solely male subjects in the paintings. Then the viewer goes on to see his later works, including his stained glass windows and paintings of women. The timeline of paintings shows how his art evolved over the years. It was very well put together. There were plenty of benches for contemplation, which were necessary because these paintings were huge and had so much detail to take in. Another aspect of its effectiveness regards the advertising the museum did for this show. I saw the face of Shantavia Beale II (the key image) everywhere around Richmond.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite exhibit that I went to was an exhibit called 'Operation Neptune' featured in the Airborne Museum. The Airborne Museum was in Sainte-Mère-Eglise in Normandy, France. The exhibit was created to show visitors what it was like to jump out of a plane and land in the midst of the chaos. There is an actual plane that is put on hydraulics that shakes with turbulence and the bomb blasts. There are mannequins of soldiers that are staring you down. You hear bomb blasts and yelling and there are lights flashing. Then when you 'jump' out of the plane, there is a glass floor. There is a model of a little town and extra small planes. There is air blowing on you and it makes you feel like you are floating out of a plane. I think that this exhibit was wonderfully executed. It was very engaging and really shaped the mind of the audience and made them realize what truly went on for the soldiers. I would love to go back and I would recommend it to anyone.
ReplyDeleteI included a link below that someone took of the exhibit. Unfortunately there is a kid crying in it but it still shows the overall effect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNR9JHZQoNI
I suppose that I enjoyed the Ragnar Kjartansson retrospective our class attended last weekend at the Hirschhorn because I found that the exhibit space was utilized to effectively transition between a variety of unconventional installations and emotional spaces, without appearing thematically disjointed. For some, certain areas of the exhibit were difficult to navigate at first, however I think that the design was sufficient enough to make visitors want to explore rather than feel lost. One challenge was its length, the hirshhorn is a cylinder and this exhibit space had one entrance and one exit, effectively trapping visitors once they've seen half of the lengthy exhibit. Some areas of the gallery were also too dim, making reading difficult for most visitors.
ReplyDeleteMost of my art experiences have been at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. There are two shows that come to mind, one being very successful and the other needing improvements regarding exhibition design. Their successful exhibit was titled The Art of the Flower: Van Gogh, Manet, and Matisse. It had an exceptional layout that guided visitors throughout the exhibit without them even thinking about where to walk to what to look at next. It had engaging wall text, a sense of unity, smooth flow, and an opportunity for visitors to interact with the exhibit. Personally, the interactive gallery was my favorite portion of the exhibit. There was a gallery space dedicated to inviting visitors to draw live flowers with the inspiration of the works that they have scene in the show. The flowers were changed every week, all of the materials were provided, and completed works were hung on display boards. It was evident that every design aspect was considered heavily and executed well. On the other hand, a more recent show titled Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic didn’t have the same exhibition design success. This exhibit was in the same space as The Art of the Flower, however they reversed the entrance and flow of the show. Immediately, this reversal was confusing to me because all other shows that I have gone to in their Altria Group Gallery have been in the opposite direction. Once I was in the space I was mesmerized by the gorgeous paintings. However, I had to think about where to go next, the flow wasn’t obvious. This led me to ask a Museum Associate where to go next. Her answer wasn’t correct and caused me to go the wrong way. I wandered around a bit still enjoying the art but I wasn’t able to fully experience the art best. This exhibit did not have an interactive component either. Successful exhibition design is crucial to the visitor experience, accurate display of art, and conveyance of artists’ story. It is interesting to see the difference in exhibition design within one museum.
ReplyDeleteWhen i went to England this past summer I went to the York Art Gallery and really enjoyed the WWII painting exhibit. The pieces were organized very well so, it made my museum experience very enjoyable. They a few larger pieces towards the front of the gallery which really grabbed my attention and made me want to explore the gallery further. The paintings were also arranged chronologically which made it easier to know which painting was made when. The works chosen were also very powerful and had a strong impact on me.
ReplyDeleteThe first show that comes to mind when I think about design is the VMFA’s Rodin exhibition last year. Unfortunately, it stands out because I believe it had bad exhibition design. It was located down stairs in a part of the VMFA I had never been in before. It was many different rooms but it was hard to tell this at the beginning of the exhibition. I took my time going through the first two rooms because normally there aren’t many more than that in a single exhibition. The second room was all about Rodin’s plaster models and showed thirty to forty of the smaller models, many of which had their own little label and blurb. They were all in two cases, one of which was about the length of the long room, but in the center so you could walk around all sides. The case was set lower, both for handicap access and so you could better see all angles of the model if you wanted. On the one hand, this was a great idea, but on the other, it required you to stoop over the case and duck and bob to see the figures from anything but the top view (which isn’t exactly the best view). After doing this for all of the figures, or even half, and then reading the labels and trying to see what details the labels were referencing, you were tired. Tired of standing, tired of reading, tired of looking at things in great detail. Rather than the show being over however, there were at least 6 more rooms ahead of you. For me, I stopped being able to full appreciate the show after the third room, wanted it to be done by the fourth, and barely took in the last few rooms. It was a great show, and I felt like I learned a lot from it, both as an artist and an art historian, but I wish there had been less of those models in the beginning or that I would have known there would be room after room of those same models made larger just a short distance away.
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