I miss museums.
There’s something about hearing the faint echoes of hushed conversations within galleries while the sounds of loose hardwood planks slowly creak with each step as I walk through an exhibit. It’s comforting. I miss the carefully engineered skylights and windows that let the right amount of light in and give me a brief visual respite from the art on the walls. I miss the guards, especially the informed ones who drop knowledge on specific works; hell I even miss the surly ones. Probably my favorite part of a museum visit is when I run into that one person who sits in front of their favorite work communing with everything the piece conjures deep within. I always give them a knowing, inscrutable nod. I get it, and I miss it terribly.
As museums around the world are confronted with funding crises, furloughs, layoffs, and grant suspensions there, has been a collective scramble among them to connect with their audiences virtually. Somehow I’ve been reluctant to engage because the amount of available content is overwhelming, however I realized recently that for me, some formats work better than others. So as I jump into this (somewhat) new terrain, I’ll share my experiences here with you. Come See With Me!
During the week of 4/13/20, photographer Dawoud Bey is taking over the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Instagram account to discuss his career, influences and the body of work featured in his latest solo show titled, An American Project. During this takeover he will share insights into the museum’s 40+ year career retrospective that includes works from his Harlem, USA series, The Birmingham Project, and his latest project called Night Coming Tenderly, Black. This latest project is a departure from his photographic portraiture and features landscape photography that reimagines the locations where fugitive slaves crossed into freedom using the Underground Railroad. This particular body of work is characterized by enveloping dark tones that transform our ideas of darkness. The title of the Project comes from a Langston Hughes poem called “Dream Variations”, and the poem brings Bey’s work to life taking the viewer into the work in an unexpected way.
“To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me,-
That is my dream!
To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! whirl! whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening….
A tall, slim tree….
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.”
See more of Dawoud Bey’s Instagram takeover of SFMOMA here. Bey also shares powerfully poignant commentary on his art and the influences that surround him on his own Instagram page which I highly suggest you follow, here.
To learn more about Dawoud Bey: An American Project, please see SFMOMA’s site.
Culture Shock Art 