Cory Arcangel and Frankie Martin video, 414-3-RAVE-95, sketched by M. River
Earlier this week I invited artists to submit sketches of the works in the Greater New York 2005 show at PS1, since the museum does not allow photography of any kind, and because there are few images available on the lousy flash web site.
I think of it as a modest step in a campaign to free the visual arts from the darkness to which they are too often committed by their custodians. We're starting with PS1/MoMA.
Barry has set up a gallery for the images, and we've just put up the first submission, by M. River, a drawing of Frankie Martin and Cory Arcangel's video shown on a monitor in the big elevator.
I haven't yet come up with a snappy name for the artist call, or the gallery, so if anyone has a suggestion I'd be pleased to hear it.
I certainly didn't start the discussion of camera policy in museums, and I don't expect to be there when it ends, but I feel very strongly about access. This quote from his editorial, "On Camera Policies in Privately Owned Public Spaces." on Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection basically reflects my own frustration:
I feel that not only is it bad business for [public museums] to prohibit or impede photography but that it is morally wrong. The whole point of a museum is to open up the arts and sciences to as broad an audience as possible. The San Francisco MOMA should be as interested in sharing its [sic] collection with someone in a village in China who will never make it to San Francisco in their lifetime as they are to the patrons that pay the cover charge at the door. They should be enouraging, not discouraging, the widest possible public viewing and distribution of their content and collection.