We recently went to another behind the scenes chitter chatter at the Zeitz MOCAA Gallery. Following on from the previous talk that we attended, these talks have opened my mind to ideas and things that I had never noticed or even thought about before. Not only do the curatorship team have to put the displays up, but they have to maintain their displays… I have never even thought about the dust, the day to day passing of hundreds of people, the fingerprints, and… just general maintenance.
Contemporary artworks are not typically static, and require continuous maintenance, tweaks and adjustments. Whenever I have wandered through galleries before, I have thought of the art as static, possibly interactive, but I have never ever thought of the maintenance. How do you keep all the tiny details clean and dusted, how do you keep all the sparkling surfaces shimmering and glittery bits and pieces glittering. From massive artworks, to tiny intricate artworks it is a challenge, just thinking about it is a challenge!
Artworks Great and Small
For example: The Procession, by Ghanian artist Rita Mawuena Benissan, is hanging in the Atrium Foyer of the Zeitz MOCAA at the moment. It is an enormous embroidered canvas, 400kg of fabric hoisted up to the ceiling. Fabric that had never been hung before and requiring a crane and all sorts of engineering to put in place. This artwork is a culmination of vibrant colours, canopies of fabric and vivid images, the essence of royal events and rich community… a truly African celebration in the heart of the Zeitz gallery.
Vast as this artwork is, the fabric has a delicate, almost ethereal look to it, the light shimmers through it, and it sways in the breeze as visitors wander in and out of the surrounding galleries.
The Set Up
Some exhibitions require difficult and tricky setup, not to mention maintenance. The setup of the many spinning “disco balls,” for artist, Cauleen Smith’s Space Station: Two Rebeccas, provides a magical experience, but just imagine the balancing act that went into setting this display up.
The Maintenance
Consider another of Cauleen Smith’s artworks: The layers of wax in these landscapes are continuously changing – there is a team of creators that maintains the correct colours of wax, and if you want to see the exhibition “Lit” and melting, then visit on a Wednesday morning, when the gallery is open and free to all visitors with an African passport.
Wear and Tear
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This artwork is constructed from hundreds and hundreds of acrylic nails, and represents a pile of snakes and is really a comment on consumerism. The gallery has a collection of acrylic nails, just for the repairs of this artwork.
What About Interactions
Take a close look at the artworks, many of them have moving parts, can you imagine if every visitor interacted with them. Many artworks are created on wheels and could literally roll away…
Some artworks are designed for interaction, for example the Edson Chagas prints. If you have ever seen visitors leave the museum with a rolled up print in their hand, then you know they have visited this artwork, it is part of the exhibition and you get to take a poster home with you. Visitors are, in fact, invited to choose a print to take home. These prints have to be restocked, again and again. The most popular prints have to be restocked faster, there is a lot of thought and work that goes into the process.
So all this invisible labour of love, goes on behind the scenes… next time I take a wander through the Zeitz MOCAA, I will definitely be looking at all the artworks with a very different view.