Visit to the MoMA

In the past year or two the MoMA has started to wear me out. It's not the crowds, I'm used to those, and it's not the exhibitions either, I love contemporary art and always like to see more. Rather, its the sense that I have that whatever is exhibited at the MoMA has gained that position primarily from the selling power of the artist or a particular dealer rather than the quality of the work by some other measure. I don't have another value system that the MoMA should use for exhibiting works, but still, it feels a bit culturally hegemonic. 

Below I have chosen two works from the collection, the first from design and the second from fine art. Both works have accrued a list of associations but the work from the designs section is thankfully, less political. 

From the design section I chose the Google Map Pin, designed by Jens Rasmussen in 2005, because I think it is a remarkable symbol. The Pin is barely reminiscent of real map pin, yet it functions so effectively, especially on a computer screen. There are so many ways in which the map pin works. It is first of all a pointer symbol, dwindling to a teardrop shape and consistent in size no matter the scale of the map, it seems to present of point of incredible exactitude. It seems to have pierced the earth at precisely the place we are looking for and, even as we zoom in, never looses confidence in its decision. The shape also lends itself to perspective. Whether the map is presented in perspective itself, which sometimes happens, or simply a birds-eye-view, the pin blossoms from the face of the earth. Sometimes I imagine myself on the surface looking up at an infinite red balloon. On that note, the pin does not only exert a downward force but floats upwards, just like someone at the chosen point was holding a large red balloon. Finally, the dot in the pin represents a target which happens to be floating over the earth. 

'To Lift' from 1967 by Richard Serra espouses the same sort of simple movements as the Map Pin above. It is part of a sort-of Analytical approach to the making of work and the title is simply the action Serra has applied to the chosen material.  Serra writes that he is not concerned with the results of the object only the process of making. That leaves us to be concerned with the output, in fact it is almost our duty when inside the museum. Serra's concern for 'simply' lifting (and also presumably placing  as the rubber did not immediately fall down) leaves room for other associations to swim into the picture. The lifted rubber is the reminiscent of papal cape that Serra has given himself. It shows the artist's ego and assertion of dominance by asking others to describe the object he has so thoughtlessly made.