Beyond the Display
What is a museum? To many people, museums are places where art objects and artifacts have been collected and are displayed. Through these displays, museums may educate visitors on an object's history or promote an artist's message. A museum's exhibit can show both, by engaging a viewer in such a way as to create a didactic experience between the object and the viewer. The traditional museum creates this experience by controlling the exhibition set up. Setup entails lighting, labels, room route, and object display. All these factors evoke emotion and control our own understanding about a people's history, culture and economic class. Our conception of the exhibit, as visitors, thereby enhances the museum experience.
We uncover such an experience at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA.) A wide range of collections, from modern to ancient art, is found in various buildings of this modern museum. One particular exhibit, the Far Eastern Collection, lies deep within the basement of LACMA's Ahmanson building. Ancient art from China, Korea, India, and other parts of South-East Asia continue to survive in these open displays and glass cases. I curiously wandered into the Chinese Art Section. The collection, specifically the Early China display room, focused on objects used during ancient Chinese dynasties. A large display text within the main gallery of this exhibit identified the three main uses of the objects: ceremonial functions, religious roles, and luxury needs. While looking around the room, I concluded that the museum's practice of educating the viewer instead left many questions unanswered and neglected the stories of the common people of ancient China.
We can derive these conclusions from museum practice theory. Susan Vogal, in her essay, "Always True to the Object, In Our Fashion," discusses how exhibition practices manipulate viewers. Vogal shows how an object, such as the African grave posts called "Mijkenda" can be displaced in museums. She provides illustrations of this artifact in several different types of displays. By doing so, she shows how an object is recontextualized through displays. Viewers must be aware of how the system, a museum's exhibition practice, influences ideas about culture and history. On a similar note, Spencer R. Crew and James E. Sims, in their essay " Locating Authenticity: Fragments of a Dialogue" challenge the traditional model of museum practice. They argue that museums should stray from only displaying specific big events in history. Instead, they should include coverage on the daily events and objects of common people, from mothers to maids. However, because these objects may have been disposed of and seen as unimportant to their owners, collection of such objects is difficult. But like Vogal, Crew and Sims support the idea that museum practices should help viewers become aware of what they see.
When we apply these theories, what we see in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is the exhibition practice of ancient Chinese art. The main Chinese art gallery included architecture that remained strikingly noticeable. Although the walls were primarily black, there were occasional red windows in the room. These red windows were Buddhist swastika signs, which were duplicated from ancient Chinese temples. Walking under a doorway labeled, "Early China Art," we become aware of the quietness of the room, which promoted a reserved feeling throughout the room. The artifacts, most encased in glass under subtle lighting, were organized in a chronological manner so that one can walk in an easy clockwise direction. Under a focused light, objects ranging from wine jars to funerary sculptures dominated the collection. The object's labels contained several components: the title of the object in Chinese, the English translation, the period, and the donors of the object. If this information did not seem helpful to the visitor, large displays of text appeared on every wall, with facts and questions that challenged the viewer to identify objects in the room. In addition, the museum provided guided tours as well as audio tours in English and Spanish for museum visitors. Overall, the Early China Art collection was dedicated to showing how art functioned in Ancient China.
The Early China exhibit shows how the aesthetic nature of ancient Chinese art reveals political and cultural themes to the viewer. One of the artifacts, a large funerary sculpture of a horse looks gracious and demands attention in the center of the room. We focus on to the beautiful appearance of the horse, yet acknowledge its ornate purpose in the tombs of the dead. At this point, we can learn from the large text on the wall that the horse was placed in front of the burial tombs of the wealthy. By introducing this object as possessed by the rich, the museum stresses the object as important in Chinese art, therefore illustrating the museum as important too. As Crew and Sims would argue, objects that were most comfortable to collect were objects of the rich. Hence, museum collections favored objects that were accessible and belonging to the wealthy. What it continues to neglect is the importance of the common people-in producing the artifact, and in preserving burial customs. What Crew and Sims suggest is a more aggressive approach in collecting objects, rather than a passive one. The contributions of the common people can be obtained through this approach. Focusing on this strategy will create a "social-historical" awareness to the viewer. But through LACMA's strategy, we realize that the elitist view remains most prevalent in creating the exhibitions.
The museum's exhibition also provides insight into the goals of the curators. Moving from glass case to case, we eventually come upon a large lidded food cauldron dated 500-450 B.C. The labeling is in Chinese and English. The exhibition successfully aspires to teach the viewer that although they may be aware of the location and period of the object, they cannot truly know the period. This is evident by the labeling system. Along with an English translation, the first line is written in Chinese characters; but unless we can read Chinese, we must trust that the translation is accurate, although we may never know for sure. We become aware about what Vogal refers to as the "dislocation" of the art object from its actual period and place. We are not given that chance to decide the actual uses of the cauldron itself and specifically how it affected the people who used it. For the visitor, feelings of exclusion, yet curiosity remains. The labeling system produces this curiosity. The cauldron is a gift of "Mr. and Mrs. Eric Lidow." The importance of ownership, rather than use, is emphasized, and so we now view the object as commodity, rather than as an object of use. While the museum continually attempts to educate the visitor about the object, the actual use of the object remains a mystery to the viewer.
The museums neglect of utility and emphasis on aesthetic is also apparent by the environment and practice strategy. From the dim lights and black walls, we feel a sense of limitation, of cautiousness. Lidded wine jars are scattered in different cases, and the effect of this strategy further leaves the viewer in question of the original function of the object. As visitors, we question whether the wine jars were used with the daggers next to it, or if the wine jars complemented the white ceramic mask in the next glass case. This side of the room is juxtaposed to the side where the funerary horse sculpture and the other items of the wealthy class remain. We feel the division in the room. Along with the mystic effect the light produces and the arrangement of the lidded jars, we become aware about the values transmitted to the visitor. In this intellectual setting, we feel reserved and inquisitive. This LACMA museum strategy is therefore not neutral, as Vogal would argue. Objects become recontextualized in displays and positions in the room. The values of aestheticism and aristocracy are transmitted to the visitor. These values are influenced by and associated with the museum. But as Vogal would suggest, we should be aware about these values and how they manipulate us as viewers. She suggests that the exhibition should educate the visitors on these values. LACMA therefore presents their values to us, through the organization of displays and the dislocation of the wine jars, and by providing enough opportunity for reflection.
The last thoughts we feel when we leave the Early China Art room are admiration, satisfaction, and curiosity. LACMA attempts to educate us, and at the same time, neglects to include all historical and social aspects of early Chinese Art. The museum's organization, labels, lighting and display further contribute to the elitist values reflected by the museum. Our emotions and our thoughts are controlled and created by the museum. Museum practice, then, influences the visitor's perceptions. But as we look further beyond this system, we recognize that art is not simply there for art's sake. It is changed by the way it is presented, even beyond glass casings.