For this assignment I went to the MoMa, a museum which I am very familiar with. I have been there dozens of times, and loved every visit.
This time, I was able to see Charles Ray's The Family. In case you have not seen the work, it is a collection of four sculptures, presumably a father, mother and two sons, completely naked and life-size. The eerie part, aside from the blunt nudity of the family altogether, is that they are all the same height. Even the young, child-faced kids are the same height and stature as their parents, which provoked a eery feeling.
The first time I saw this work was the The New Museum, ironically when I paid a visit for a previous museum blog assignment for Media 150.
What made this viewing different was that it was placed in a museum that I felt comfortable it. At The New Museum, I viewed this on my first visit ever, and felt like I was going through some wacky fun-house, each floor getting more bizarre than the one before it. Upon seeing The Family, I was completely numb, and less shocked than I was when viewing it at the MoMa. By seeing it here, I was able to notice the deliberate sizing of the 4 members, and how that was meant to provoke such a reaction, whereas I wasn't able to feel that when it was on view at the wackier, more daring New Museum. This truly showed me how the placement of an object (or entire exhibit) can affect the viewer's perception.
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