In reference to exhibitions which feature works that incorporate organic
materials, such as Damien Hirst's work, the Tate Museum in London had a
scare, to the best of my memory, about four years ago, when they had to shut
down due to a leak in some work which contained gases.

As for museums which incorporate plants, the Manchester City Galleries,
Manchester, U.K., had potted palms in some exhibition areas a few years ago,
if I am remembering correctly.  You might wish to contact them.

Hope some of this was of interest.

Teresa Whitt, South Charleston Museum, South Charleston, WV


>From: "J./B. Moore" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: food and plants in galleries
>Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 13:45:22 -0500
>
>I think the only good plant in an exhibition is a fake plant (checked
>thoroughly for airborne CFC's, of course!).  For historic houses I can
>see the desirability of having GOOD fake plants in an exhibition design,
>but for art museums I think plants are unnecessary, design-wise.
>
>BUT...re food in exhibition spaces...aside from rentals (which should
>never allow food in exhibition areas although it happens more often than
>anyone will admit, including at my institution), sometimes it can't be
>helped.  Dealing with contemporary artists as I do, I have had
>exhibitions that incorporated actual foodstuffs (and water in bags...)
>as part of the artwork.  This past year we hosted an exhibition that
>entailed spreading 1 ton of cornmeal on the floor.  It had to be real,
>because the smell of it was important to the piece.  I worried that it
>would attract bugs and mice, so I scheduled it for winter when these
>critters were likely to be dormant.  Since we got the cornmeal donated
>from a major ag supplier known for clean factories and since it was very
>freshly ground before it was taken to us, I didn't think we needed to
>have it sterilized, although I considered asking them to flash-heat it.
>We discussed having it treated with something to kill any beasties that
>tried to eat it, but then we figured we'd just have to clean up dead
>beasties so in the end we just put down the cornmeal and crossed our
>fingers for 6 weeks.  In retrospect we were very, very lucky that we
>didn't seem to get any unwanted activity, but I will think twice (or
>three or four times) before we do it again.
>
>I wonder how museums that exhibit Jana Stirbak's meat dresses or Damien
>Hirsh's severed cow parts, or Ann Hamilton's installations, reconcile
>the bug issue.  One Ann Hamilton installation had live canaries flying
>around in the gallery--I'd hate to be on cleanup for that one.
>
>Julia Moore
>Indianapolis Art Center
>
>
>
>
> >  What do you (and
> > > others) think of the practice of staff designers introducing plants
>into
> > > exhibition spaces as decor?
>
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