The Arts in New York City

While I enjoyed the visit to the Punk Rock exhibit at the MoMa, it was not something I would go to again. The exhibit seemed out of place and chaotic, over-packed and confusing. As we have talked about it in class, the exhibit itself belongs not in the pristine white walls of MoMa, but rather in a grungy place that would give the exhibit a more appropriate atmosphere. Even though the exhibition space was orderly, the exhibit itself confused me. I felt bombarded with music, headphones, videos, photographs, newspapers, clippings, art and collages from all sides.  I could not focus on one piece alone. The music was a good, and essential part of the exhibit, because how can one display a certain musical movement without giving the visitor an idea of what the style sounded like? Also, some of the things displayed had too much detail or information in them, like the large collage or the newspaper clippings posted together. While they were interesting pieces, I either found myself looking at the collage as a whole and not reading into the details or getting lost in trying to read or look at every photo and article in the collage. The end result of the latter is that I ended up looking at only 1/10 of the piece, was no longer interested in reading anything else, and never saw the overall picture of the collage. Maybe the chaos and bombardment of various elements in the exhibit was meant to represent the music itself, but this was not my kind of exhibit. While it was informative, I prefer MoMa’s other exhibits to this one.

Last week was my first time visiting the Museum of Modern Art, and I came with a lot of expectations. Walking through the halls and seeing just a taste of what the museum had in its walls escalated my excitement to see our main attraction. And while the Punk Rock exhibit did give me a lot of information into a genre that I admittedly didn’t know much about, the curators made a poor mistake when designing the display.

The collage was a chaotic mixture of photographs, articles, and flyers of the musicians that brought the genre of punk rock from clubs of New York to the world stage. Unfortunately, this was all the chaos we were going to get out of the display. The rest of the exhibit was organized meticulously, from the perfect alignment of the album’s samples to the square shape of the music video stations. I felt like I couldn’t get into the music while encased within the pristine-ness. “Blank Generation” by Richard Hell and “Heart of Glass” by Blondie felt like they needed to be surrounded by color. I felt weird watching Dominatrix’s “The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight” in the bright lighting of the exhibit.

I felt that the designers could have put a little more effort into creating a vibe within the display that corresponded with the genre. It didn’t have to be anything drastic; dimmed lighting, obscured framing of the cases, colored light bulbs, or uneven placing of the music video stations would have achieved this without breaking their budget. I enjoyed everything that I saw and heard at the punk rock exhibit, but I wished that the curator’s didn’t try to conform the genre to be cohesive with the rest of the museum. It was misleading and the genre lost its authenticity.

Although we did negatively critique the efforts of the museum and its curators in the putting together of this exhibit, I see it from a different perspective. This was my first time to the MOMA. It was my first official exposure to any form of modern art. I have- until last week- managed to stay away from anything to do with that word, ‘Modern art’. It’s not that I hate or despise it, it’s just that I never wanted to be in a situation where I had to judge it. Its always been very subjective and comes down to taste. You either love it, or you hate it. Yet it is almost satirical that I am in a situation where I am writing a review on an ironic exhibition at the MOMA, the haven for Modern art enthusiasts..

In regards to the exhibition I was able to enjoy myself. It did provide contrast to the other floors and rooms I had to pass to get there. Despite the fact that many loathed the way the generation of Punk Rock-with its discord, and anti-establishment subculture- was presented, I did not. I actually had very little criticism towards the methods the curators took to present it. I understand that many believed that the order of the exhibition was totally opposite of what Punk Rock stood for, and that the presentation techniques were way off. The class discussed the polite and ‘dainty’ manner the curators took to organize the wall of magazine clippings, newspapers, and posters, as well as the short ‘cute’ recordings on Sony headphones and television. Many mentioned that the exhibition could not even be mildly compared to the loudness of the generation. The exhibition was looked at and seen as a shortcoming of the curators to present the dirty, nonconforming, noisy, and protesting scene of the 70s, but I hardly do. To me there was no lacking aspect of rebellion, or more space to fill, or a display that needed more of a ‘garage’ look.

The exhibition was small, but it did include artifacts from the period. It included many visuals and audio recordings that gave samples of what the era was like. There was a glass case of old newspapers, announcements, ticket stubs, and photographs that were authentic and not copies of them. There was authenticity to the publicity given to the New York City scene of Punk Rock. Overall, I like to think the exhibition could be summed up by the title of one famous Punk Rock Song, ” Live Fast Die Young”. The Exhibition was fast. It displayed everything in about two rooms, but it was a lot of information. What we first see is a wall covered in clippings from the era. This was the highlight of the exhibition for me. Although they were just pieces of what occurred, there was variety and history in the pictures. There was not a space of white wall on this wall, and this did create the loudness of the subculture for me. If one actually took the time and put yourself into the pictures, you could probably gain more from them.What the wall did was create a sense of busyness for the spectator. I did see people a lot of time looking at the wall, but no one saw the entire wall! There was too much going on. There were bands playing on the same nights at different locales, bands getting famous nationally, while others were rising in the streets of New York. Everything was happening at once on the wall. This was how the Punk Rocker lived. Life was fast and expected to be short.

Although some complain about how this exhibition didn’t capture the ideology of Punk Rock, we have to remember we are in a museum. There are some things that are impossible to recreate. Jazz is a another genre of music that exhibitions take on. Do we really think the lifestyle of the people living during  the time  of ragtime, swing, or bebop is captured in a museum exhibition? Jazz Clubs even try to recapture how the scene was, but can always come short of what it really was like. When we see an exhibition on the evolution of man, it’s extremely hard to portray exactly what the caveman ‘culture’ was like or stood for. The main goal was survival, do we leave such an exhibition nodding and saying to ourselves, “That exhibition made me understand that survival was the main focus of that era”? How do you display what these eras represented? With artifacts, possibly photographs, recreations, etc. This exhibition had all of that. If you really want to experience Punk Rock, don’t go to a museum and complain that it didn’t leave you feeling the Punk Rock atmosphere or weren’t ‘taken back’. If you want that ‘garage’ feel, find a garage band and go to their garage .

Our visit to the MoMA’s exhibit on punk rock was very interesting. The purpose of the exhibit was to inform viewers of the history of this anti-establishment genre of music. Punk rock originated as a way to rebel against the Vietnam War, which was raging on as this form of music began to take shape.

As you enter the exhibit, you are immediately drawn to the collage of newspaper and magazine clippings pasted along the wall. These pieces convey certain information about various punk rock bands that were popular in the time, such as Kiss and Aerosmith. After viewing this part of the exhibit, you make your way to an area where various music from the time is being played. Records are enclosed in cases along the wall, with other various memorabilia from the time being displayed. At the end of the exhibit, you are shown a video of a “game,” where two people move two stones at a time. This video was very odd because you do not know what the purpose of it actually is. However, it can be assumed that the sound of the rocks being put back on the ground is the music in the video.

The exhibit was quite short and the opposite of what punk rock stood for. Punk rock originated in garages, as a way to rebel against the “establishment.” However, MoMA has taken artifacts from punk rock and encased them in an “establishment.” The exhibit was clean and white, while punk rock stemmed from dirty old garages.  Regardless, the exhibit itself was very interesting as it explained the history of punk rock in New York City.

Punk rock is a genre of music that I never knew much about, and our visit to the MoMA definitely gave me some information. The exhibit successfully showed the roots of the movement, where it was most concentrated, and the key figures who participated in punk rock. Our class activity at the end helped bring all these aspects together and really helped me understand the origins and history of punk rock.

Although informative, the exhibit was not one I would have any desire to see again. It was small, a little bland, and just not at all what one would expect a punk exhibit to look like. For a movement whose focal point is anti-establishment, the exhibit appeared way too organized, not nearly loud enough, and empty. I do, however, understand that the movement has not developed into much of a “history” yet, and as time goes on, there will be more pieces added to the exhibit, and it will improve.  I did enjoy being able to listen to the music of the genre, and some of the pieces really were very interesting and evocative of punk, but overall, I think that the exhibit in its present state does not represent the punk rock movement well enough.