Jonah Yang
For some artists, such as a painter, a sculptor, and so forth, most of the time, we create our own art individually. While nowadays, there are numerous of different ways and new types of methods to explore and try out. Moreover, you might gradually discover that for sometimes, you could not just attempt to finish a research yourself, even though you are somehow a professional in your own field, you still might need people with other expertises to collaborate with. As an individual, it is more likely to be flexible when you are working on something, but it is impossible that you never need to interact with others in the world of art. Coming up with the Collaboration Module, as a group, we might find it a bit difficult at the very first moment, which is actually not a big problem, but what we need to face and discuss about, since each of us are based on slightly different art backgrounds; fine arts, architecture, interior design, how can we put all these together and make the most of the skills to help fulfill our project.
It took us pretty much a while to eventually come up with the title “Invisible Art.” After glazing through a few of the topics we had discussed about, we all decided to focus on the art phenomenon currently, which we have been interested in. Despite of the fact that we finally made our decision of the topic, it is still quite rangy and wide. Instead of creating an artwork together, we settled on a plan of doing the research. In this multicultural era at present, the habit and the purpose of going to a show, an exhibition, a gallery or a museum, has been changed. Along with the latest lifestyle, internet and online social platform is something that we can not avoid and almost impossible to not participate in. Constantly, more and more new circumstances has developed into new keywords, for instance, “Cyberstars (online celebrities)”, “Instagrammable Art.”
What inspired me to come up with this topic was two years ago, when I was in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. I was very impressed that I finally get the chance to see Van Gogh’s self-portrait, spending time standing there for like more than an hour without moving to the next venue for other paintings, just to see and enjoy the impressive brush strokes on the canvas. Suddenly, a huge group of tourists following a guide came into the exhibiting room, while this was not the thing that surprised and confused me, but the thing that happened afterwards. The tour guide of the group was not really respecting those who are admiring the painting quietly in the space, he then shouted out to his customers: “Okay! The painting now in your front was painted by Van Gogh. Beware of your time, hurry up, TWO minutes for pictures and let’s leave!” I felt totally confused with what the guide said as well as feeling sorry with the tourists who encountered such awful guide. For not even more than one minute, they entirely left with only photos in their phones, but actually did not or even forgot to spend time and see the real painting in person when they lastly made it here to the museum.
Due to the high-tech development, we can apparently see all the artworks without going directly, but on your bed today. 3D virtual museum tours are what you can just google it online, even no need for tickets, and get the permission to see all the artworks with perfectly amazing quality. Therefore, what is the thing that can really draw audiences’ attention to come to the show in person, is one of the main issues curators and artists have been thinking about. Hashtagging, checking-in, sharing posts and photos on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, have became one of the most efficient ways to advertise, also it is free. But still, there must be at least something to attract visitors to come first, otherwise you can not make full use of the advantage without people and good photos. Thus, art and the general public expectations are the two things that need to be considered and well-balanced.
Apart from the resources we can refer to online, thoughts from the general public, is also important, which it can not only help us to clarify some of the perspectives, but also make the result of the research more objective and persuasive. Eventually, I created a questionnaire, in particular for our project, under the name Invisible Art. Collecting replies from both art background and non-art background individuals, as what I discovered, the result is quite interesting. My original idea was to try and make the questionnaire objective as much as possible, while from one of the replies I collected said: “the questions are too leading.” The comment actually attracted my attention, since everyone understands that designing a questionnaire which a hundred percent fits and suits all of the people is something difficult. Just because of the reply, I went through the questions again and again, instead of considering “too leading” as a mistake, I find it interesting and turned out to be another absorbing intention.
How people answer the questions is literally something that worth discussing. From the result I received is far from and beyond our expectation. When designing a questionnaire, we might have in a way presumed what the result is potentially already; although, some of them do match our original guess, many of them are slightly different from our assumption. Instead of redesigning or editing the previous questions to make it maybe not so leading, as an alternative, I added one more question, which is: “Most of the people know that one of the most famous paintings, Sunflower, done by Van Gogh, is in the Nation Gallery in London; and many people have thought that it is the only version that was painted by Van Gogh. But, do you know, how many versions of "Sunflower" were actually done by Van Gogh? (Yes/ NO; how many versions do you think there are.)” The reason that I decided to add this question, is because I am expecting people to finally aware that there is an issue we wanted to deliver at the end, after spending time participating in the questionnaire, not just helping us with collecting results, but getting the chance to rethink, reflect and expand their horizons as well. This won’t be the end of our project, and I believe very soon in the future, the phenomenon will become different, changing continuously, and what makes it so fascinating is the various possibilities and aspects we can dig into.
Video:
Filmed in Gallerie degli Uffizi & Galleria dell'Accademia, Firenze, Italia, 2019