A few months ago a friend of mine asked me to go check out a Fringe performance. The show included live dance, video and an audience participation piece at the end. I really enjoyed it and wondered why painters can't demand the same kind of attention from their audiences. Once you walk into a play for instance, you are held captive, you can't get in or out and need to be quiet.
I just saw the Pipilotti Rist exhibition, or lounge show, at MOMA. She has pretty much solved the problem, except you are free to come and go as you like and you really don't even have to pay attention. There might be a narrative in her video piece but it doesn't really matter.
Mary Heilman (shown above) has also taken on the problem of slowing people down to look at the work by providing chairs. Or maybe she just felt like designing some chairs. Either way I like the idea.
There is a blog called Slow Painting that is really nice. The name is a bit deceiving because they show just about everything, including chairs. But their statement is great, give it a slow read.
