Whether the content of an exhibition is as ethereal as digital sound pieces or as concretely grounded as full-scale model houses, whether it draws on art, architecture, written documents, household objects, anthropological artifacts, or any other collection of information, the perennial conundrum is how to render the immaterial spatial—how to give the show’s concept impact and three-dimensional meaning for visitors moving through it. As artist Marcel Duchamp made abundantly clear when he signed a urinal for display in an art exhibition, the immediate surroundings can influence the perception, if not the experience, of the work presented. After all, even the convention of the pure white gallery with pedestals is hardly neutral, conveying, however tacitly, a particular narrative and character traits of the venue.
“In inviting someone to design an exhibition,” says Henry Urbach, curator of architecture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), “I’m not just bringing in a person to carry out my vision; it’s a way of making the interpretation and the conversation about a show’s form and content richer and more complex.” Independent curator Donald Albrecht, who has staged major shows in such places as the National Building Museum, in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of the City of New York, agrees. He welcomes an inspiring counterproposal to his ideas, a truly three-dimensional vision that may not have crossed his mind, he says, “rather than a matter of merely picking wall colors and typefaces.”
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