Audience Acquisition
2011

Part of the 2011 exhibition entitled “Without You I’m Nothing: Art and Its Audience” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Audience Acquisition was a collaborative and participatory performance situated in the museum’s main atrium. The performance invited museum visitors to go through an acquisitions process, similar to the way art objects are processed when they enter a museum’s collection. Participants in the performance were measured and inspected for unique characteristics and apparent “flaws” before being labeled with an accession number, photographed, and clothed in protective coveralls (white Tyvek suits). Participants were then released into the museum galleries to explore the the galleries as usual. Audience Acquisition was a critique of the museums’ emphasis on protecting the art object, oftentimes prioritizing this above the visitor’s experience, as evidenced by the vitrines, stanchions, alarms, and “do not touch” signs ubiquitous in art museums. As a point of contrast, Audience Acquisition suggested that it was the safety and experience of each museum visitor that was valued above all else.

Collaborators: Morgan Brill, Valerie DeKeyser, Josie Gluck, Cecilia Gomez, Lauren Mosakowski, Nathan Paoletta, and Morgan Walsh