In the article of “Exhibiting Intention: Some Preconditions of the Visual Display of Culturally Purposeful Objects”, the author, Michael Baxandall mainly discussed interrelationship within the group of three agents upon their influence and reflect of the artifacts in the museum, and the understanding of culture elements behind the display. In the first part of this paper, I will identify the points of view of the author. In the second part, I will analyze the layout of the gallery, “Imagining the Underground” in Earth Matters in Fowler Museum in UCLA. Several discussion related to the settings of the museum and the article will be discussed interactively. In general, this paper tries to show the robustness and the weakness of Baxandall’s model, which will specified.
Baxandall specified his discussion about the problem by supposing that the displays of the gallery were permanent and conservative, which means that the main artifact served for inspection laid in the center of the galley around with additional elements. He also assumed that the viewers were educational members of a developed society, who both enjoyed the expected interesting object view and the functional purpose of the artifacts. After illustrating the assumption, he raised up the main question that different viewers with different cultural background may have different ideas about the artifact. This complicating position was not only the result from the viewers, but also from the object itself and the arrangers of the exhibition. The assumption is strong and will be discussed later.
The author raised up an example to show this scenario and discussed the effect on the viewer of the basic information in the label about facture and function. First the label didn’t cove...
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...the current one. Hence, if there are many viewers, people might get stuck there. My suggestion would be that the film could be arranged in another room with more chairs.
In conclusion, although there are several weaknesses of the gallery “Imagining the Underground,” it strongly supports the ideas of Baxandall and it perfectly serves the viewers with a feast of African culture and art exhibition. Its layout, exhibition style and labels are greatly organized and interacted in the way along with Baxandall’s idea. Baxandall’s model and ideas together with the example of this gallery should be considered in future construction of galleries.
Reference
Baxandall, Michael. "Exhibiting intention: Some preconditions of the visual display of culturally purposeful objects." Exhibiting cultures: The poetics and politics of museum display (1991): 33-41.
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