Exhibition
View, Others
curated by Pae White. © MAK/Katrin Wißkirchen.
Pae
White reacts to the themes present in Vienna
1900 and
curates the exhibition Others for the MAK Permanent Collection
Contemporary Art. In a selection of works-on-paper and
three-dimensional objects, Pae White focuses on items in the MAK
Collection that are not clearly categorized and whose authors are
principally unknown. Equally, White is interested in the role of
critics and curators in the formation of narratives, which exclude
objects of ambiguous value in order to create clearer histories.
“Within
every museum there are objects that are un-attributable, that have no
clear authorship, and yet remain part of the collection. The
significance of the object is clear, but their place in an historical
narrative is not. Living in a sort of limbo, these objects pass time
in their dark, climate-controlled space, waiting for a curator to
detach them from limbo (or not). The institution understands their
inherent value, yet cannot position them definitively in any
conventional art-historical chronicle, which consequently ensures
their continued absence from both exhibitions and historical texts.
To
be certain, art historians and curators, alike, must engage in the
editing of history to establish a storyline clear enough to be
understood by a target audience; however sophisticated that audience
might be, the totality of production in any era is too much to
apprehend easily. When that era is the explosion of creativity that
was fin de siècle Vienna, however, the trickle-down exuberance needs
to be recognized. These creations may only seem semi-important when
viewed next to the acknowledged masterpieces of the era, but those
adjacencies provide a wider, more complex context in which to
understand the era in its entirety.
Others
is an attempted rescue of some of these unknown yet important
objects, by temporarily relocating them to the gallery on the top
floor, allowing them the exposure that they so richly deserve.
This exhibition will celebrate objects that challenge questions of
categorization and authorship, offering, perhaps, a new, more
inclusive story that defies historicism. My hope is to present the
work as it came to me—without words, free of any didactic text
anchoring it to a familiar, oft-told storyline.
In
the end, OTHERS is less about the redemption of objects and more
about offering the viewer (and the objects) the space to
breathe, proposing the poetic silence of the unknown, and
opening up a space, freed from the tyranny of history, in which
these lovely, mostly anonymous creations can be viewed on their
own terms.”
–Pae
White, Vienna, November 2012
21
November 2012–17 March 2013
MAK
Permanent Collection Contemporary Art
MAK – Austrian Museum of
Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, Vienna
