Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Copycat?
It's hard to know when art is genuine and when it's the culmination of pop culture, personal inspiration, and years of conspiracy theory.
What I found at the Museum in the Meatpacking district was a lot of the same: Warhol wannabes, a room set up like a bedroom, a urinal hanging between two paintings. I don't know. With urban exploration, at least the weirdness is part of a narrative. So if there's a toilet in the middle of the living room, it makes you wonder who put it there and why. Paying to see a urinal between two paintings is some artistic douchebag's way of "making me think". What I'm really thinking about is how much money that guy's laughing to the bank with.
But I digress.
The one section that didn't make me roll my eyes was an exhibit by Blair Ames, a name I recognized from conspiracy theory articles back in the day. And yes, I participated in it (here and here). In a nutshell, the story was that Blair Ames populated her museum with preserved corpses. In this exhibit, two hyperrealistic mannequins reached across the room for each other, causing visitors to walk under their outstretched hands. Two others lay on the floor as though dead.
By the time I got there, only one of the prostrate mannequins was left, because one of them was an actual dead body. He'd been shot in the head and his blood was everywhere, but the gore and the smell weren't enough for these pretentious art people to think enough was enough and call the police. There's a plaque and framed news articles on the wall about it now, and the chalk outline is still there.
One would think advertising like "accidental dead body" would kill an exhibit, but it made this one more popular. I mean hell, I went.
The exhibit is based on themes from Blair Ames' first museum, and supposedly takes some of its pieces from the recently uncovered underground museum (where no decorated corpses were found). No one has seen or heard from the artist since the day before the current exhibit opened.
Call me crazy, but I believe the stories. In another 20-30 years, the mannequins in this museum will up and leave.
— Diya
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