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The
Steiny Road Poet has
discovered a museum
exhibition that might
have pleased Gertrude
Stein who did not like
museums. Her emphasis
was on what is now and
ways of communicating
what is now.
In the lower level lobby of the Hirshhorn Museum of Art in
Washington, DC, an unexpected burst of language, often in
oversized san-serif letters gleefully shouts out questions,
answers, advice, comic comments, maxims. Welcome to Belief
+ Doubt, artist Barbara Kruger’s room wrap. This display
covering over 6,000 square feet is an immersive exhibition
which means anyone entering the space, will be steeped in
this presentation without their permission. And expected to
respond. Oh, yes, Gertrude would love this approach where
the artist has set up her work not in a gallery but in a
passageway, a hallway where the escalators have become part
of the exhibition. Such questions as WHOSE VALUES,
WHOSE BELIEFS, WHOSE POWER, WHO IS BEYOND THE
LAW are glued to the floors, walls, and outer escalator rails in
printed vinyl.
In an interview with a Hirshhorn administrator found on the
Hirshhorn website, Kruger said some of the commentary
found in her exhibitions was inspired by the following
paraphrased quote from Walter Benjamin, “if the soul of
the commodity existed, it would want to nestle in the heart
and home that passed its way.” Such slogans as MONEY
MAKES MONEY and PLENTY SHOULD BE ENOUGH
sprang from the message Benjamin wanted to impart.
While Steiny was aware that Barbara Kruger had a
Hirschhorn exhibit entitled Belief + Doubt, she did not realize
when she rode the down escalator into the lobby on the way
to a concert that this was the entire exhibit. She approached a
door over which was written (in smaller lettering but still in
capital letters), “When was the last time you laughed?” Just as
she was reaching for the doorknob, a Hirshhorn guard came
into the lobby, giving Steiny the opportunity to ask where the
rest of the exhibit was. “Oh, this is it, the entire thing I think,”
the guard said, making Steiny laugh.
Kruger said in her interview that it was great to have a space
with an aerial view. She also noted that architecture was her
first love and that she was influenced by Patti Smith to write
poetry. Yes, Patti Smith, poet, punk-rock pioneer,
countercultural artist. Gertrude Stein would have met her
creative soulmate in Patti Smith.
Steiny leaves you, Dear Reader, with the final printed piece of
vinyl:
BELIEF + DOUBT = SANITY
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