Elles Ethnography

What can we learn about the Elles exhibit at SAM and its framing of women artists by approaching it ethnographically? Think of yourself as an ethnographer or participant-observer, and the exhibit (museum publicity efforts, public response, discussions sparked by it, the way the exhibit is installed, and how viewers interact with the pieces) as your field site.

Some questions to ponder:

• What is the effect of the organizers’ decision to use the language of “women artists” rather than “feminism”?
• What messages about gender are circulated through the marketing materials created to promote the show (see below)? How do these marketing images compare with the artwork itself?

Some ethnographic exercises to try:

• If you hear any discussion about the exhibit (among friends or family, in your dorm, on the bus), jot down what people say.
• At the exhibit, listen to what you hear people (museum staff, visitors, security guards) in the galleries saying about various pieces.
• Document your own reaction to a specific piece, a specific gallery, or the overall exhibit.
• Take a photograph of an installation (the way the work is hung or arranged in relation to other work) that made you think about it in a new way, or troubled you. Create alternative installation ideas by collaging together works that were not grouped together by the organizing themes chosen by the curatorial staff.
• Practice looking at a piece before reading the wall text and vice versa. In what ways does the wall text inform or run counter to your experience?
• Make note of who owns the work on display and when it was acquired in relation to the date of creation.
• Check out Jenny Holzer’s Inflammatory Essays as recreated in the Elles:SAM exhibit and outside on the corner of Second Avenue and Union. Does the meaning of the piece change when displayed in these different contexts?

 

Television commercial for Elles at the Seattle Art Museum