museum anthropology

today i went to the newly remodeled Seattle Art Museum, and I loved it. It's a really great remodel and the exhibits are cool. They've added a lot of new modern art, which is great because that's my favorite. However, the best thing about SAM is how they treat world art. They have always had a great display of pacific northwest indian artifacts but they also have great displays of australian aborigine and african art that is new. They have cut down on their japanese art, but that's ok. Sometimes I get really annoyed at art museums when they treat art from parts of the world that isn't from europe or north america as if it's not art at the same level. They treat it as merely "artifact" instead of as legitimate art that is designed for aesthetics. So many museums treat this kind of artwork as if it's merely designed for purpose, and that it's beautiful by chance, not by design.

My favorite part was that the african section had a very original display of west african masks. Masks in african cultures are used for performance, and the mask generally transforms the actor into a spirit or other important person, and then the actor is subject to new societal rules while wearing that mask. In museums they are always displayed on walls without the action that traditionally accompanies a mask. At SAM they dressed manicans up in modern outfits and put masks on them to show the character, as well as having mask performances playing. They also included modern african art which was great. So often those displays only include "ancient artifacts" as if art has ceased to exist in those parts of the world. There were some absolutely amazing modern paintings by aboriginals that had such detailed stories behind them. I learned a lot.

This contrasted so severely to a couple recent museum experiences I had that were negative. I went to the Louvre in August. It was horrible. Now to be fair, i realize that it's a massive and impressive collection. But i hate renaissance art. it bores me to tears. But we got lost trying to run away from all the tourists at the mona lisa and found ourselves in the very scant african art section. Half of the pieces didn't say where they were from, there was no context to any of it, and it seemed that most of the pieces were there for shock value alone as if they were saying "look at this giant african penis! it's from somewhere in africa! exotic!" ugh. Also in October I went to the fairly new Museum of the American Indian in DC. It was such an overwhelming layout, so many colors, so many videos, a twisty turny path. It was extremely difficult to stop and read anything, without getting bogged down for an hour in one little section. There wasnt a very good spread of tribes and I felt that it was way too hard to get anything out of the experience. I couldn't imagine being a child in that museum! There was so much going on, with a not clear divide between old, new, modern indian practices, conservation, etc, etc. When I see things like that I get really annoyed because museums can be done right. it is possible to stroll through a museum and still read about interesting items. It is possible to treat art from the whole world as actual art and to give context to things people might not be familiar with in the same way that context is given to modern art movements, or renaissance portrait techniques.

anways, the new restaurant at the museum is awesome too! and so is the shop!