Mungo Thomson's [Copy Last Blog Title...Insert Here]

Photo Credit: http://mungothomson.com/project/silent-film-of-a-tree-falling-in-the-forest/

   

    I can think of no better title for this blog post and Mungo Thomson's work than The Art of Exhibition, which I've already used last time, so I thought I'd elaborate a bit on whose Art of Exhibition it was.  Thomson's artwork is very much on the art of exhibition, which when looking at his website is not very obvious from the projects he has posted.  In a lecture he gave in the HAMMER Lecture Sereis, an exhibition in his own right, he talked about how his work was exhibited.  His work, by nature, is very scarce online whereas some of the other artist's presented on, such as Ryan Trecartin, used the internet and more modern media to exhibit their works and even add meaning to them.

   Although Thomson's art is often distributed and  not available for viewing online, shows he wishes for the art of his exhibitions to remain in the exhibitions themselves.  His Coat Check Chimes 2008, installed in the Whitney Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York  really expresses that his exhibits are meant to be interacted with and it is all about the art of the exhibit.  Not only did he do this specifically for this area replacing all of the 1,200 wooden coat hangers with his own, but used it to bracket his exhibit and admitted, if you don't check a coat, you don't see it although you might hear it.

   His exhibition of Silent Film of a Tree Falling in the Forest, 2006 really had interesting contrast with our Watching exhibit.  He made the room dark while ours was white, he made it a little harder to see the main focus of the piece, while we made it accessible.  Thomson shows there is a huge art to exhibition, which people may not realize is present in the work of other artists.  Their exhibition decisions of, "Do I put it online?"  "I am putting it in a museum!"  "I want people to come and see it, I'll only put teasers online", really share something about their art and the way they want it viewed.  Thomson is really able to express this idea in his art.