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? > >========================================================= >Important Subscriber Information: > >The Museum-L FAQ file is located at >http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. You may obtain >detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line >e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message >should read "help" (without the quotes). > >If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to >[log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff >Museum-L" (without the quotes). ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).