Please Do Not Touch

[koishiou]

I work part time as a security guard at a major art museum. I just want to tell everyone that you should not feel bad or shameful if a guard approaches you and tells you not to touch! It doesn't mean that you are a bad gallery patron!
Art galleries want people to be able to view the art they are showing without putting up too many barriers, ropes, glass etc. Gallery guards are there in place of those more obtrusive things to know the rules and the needs of a specific piece so that everyone can enjoy it up close.  
That said, if you are ever in doubt about how to interact with a piece, just ask a gallery guard! Most of us will be happy to tell you everything you need to know to enjoy a piece.

[deniseglines]

My blind friend has a sign on her fridge that says "please do not touch" -- in braille :)

[Xenolilly]

Richard:There's rule followers out there.
Sarah: Really?
I busted up laughing. Sarah you're the best.

[knightsintodreams]

I think this would be cool idea for an art piece. Maybe a globe made of brass that gets polished by peoples repeated touch. Sort of symbolizing man's affect on the earth.

A few cigarette butts, a bit of carbon emission here and there, no change. But when many people do it over and over...

[KyleWyattOnGoogle]

I knew within 20 seconds; "Aw yes, we're gonna hear about Felix Gonzalez-Torres!" I mean, if you wanna talk about an artist that blurs the lines around gallery etiquette, Felix is the one to talk about. Especially with the stack of posters and the candy pieces; the pieces are intended to have people take away, acknowledging the truth that "taking" for yourself means you're destroying the piece and some other person's potential experience. It begs the question "What actually is the artwork?" Is it the literal stack of candy in the corner? Is it the otherwise-scandalous act of taking the candy for yourself? Is it the metaphor the candy and the taking of candy all represents? Is the artwork just the IDEA of this specific kind of candy, arranged just so for others to take? Just great great ideas surrounding that man's work and I'm still sad he isn't alive continuing to shine light on concepts today like he did when he was alive.

[MahlenMorris]

At New York's PS1, I met a guard there who told me about how she accidentally stood on an artwork (it was a flat piece of dull metal lying on the floor).

Come to think of it, PS1 has James Turrell's "Meeting", which is a large square bench surrounding a hole in the ceiling. I sat on the bench for a while, then stood up, and a loose nail in the bench ripped a small hole in my pants! So there's an artwork inappropriately touching me :)

[TheLindsrobinson]

I can't really take a picture of one, but the few times I have been lucky enough to see a van Gogh in person, I have wanted to run my fingers over the paint. He painted with such thick paint. The painting have all of this great texture and lines. They seem so tactile.

[KristofskiKabuki]

the main thing I learnt from this is that when Americans say "can" and "can't" it sounds exactly the same.

[coloratura]

Sort of the opposite of the assignment, but: one of the things I love about architecture is that it's art you can touch. When I was studying abroad in London and visiting these beautiful Gothic cathedrals and castles all over Europe, it was really, REALLY cool. I could touch a stone pillar in Notre Dame in Paris and be physically connected to the past in a very direct way.

[mellowapocalypse]

YES! I LOVE THE CANDY PILE! Its one of my most favorite art pieces ever. I grew up a little the day that I saw it & took a piece of candy.

[ARTiculations]

I would say it's also important to not get too close to an art piece. At work I often see people put their face a quarter of an inch from a painting where they're so close they're breathing on the work. When I tell them to step back I often get a snarky "well it's not like I'm touching it!" How do you guys think I should address that?

[Geeksdanz]

It's not there anymore, but for a while the Carnegie museum here in Pittsburgh had a visiting artist exhibit (I forget the artist) that was a maze of rooms built entirely out of flat die-cut steel pieces held together with metal chain.  It looked like it was suspended from the ceiling, but in fact was standing upright on the floor - even though it didn't seem possible for it to actually stand up like that without other support!  You could walk through the rooms and look up and around you at the structure, but no touching - and I desperately wanted to touch it.  I think it had something to do with needing to know how it was made, or how it works.

[madalenklare]

As someone who's worked in a museum of small historical buildings where the artifacts are out in the open and set up like a home, it's SO HARD to keep people from touching stuff! The proximity definitely does have an impact on the urge to touch it, as well as our mixed messages (since we have interactive stuff, too). It's such an interesting challenge that way, especially when there's a huge festival or something and a ton of people are visiting...helping out at museums definitely changes your perspective on art and artifacts! Loved the video!

[elephantschild]

It's like a field of fresh snow. Once you've admired the pristine beauty, who wouldn't want to run out and add their own footprints?

[missrobinhoodie]

It was likely the most shameful moment of my life when I touched an art piece in a prestigious art gallery in florence out of childlike wonder (I was 17) and the security guard nearby shouted a dreadful italian into the echoey gallery that made me wake up and realize my myself and my outrageous stupidity 😭🤦🏼‍♀️

[memoriesandmud]

Earlier this year in printmaking class I presented work for critique that aimed to draw attention to events or objects that may usually go unnoticed or cannot be seen without aid of technology. To emphasise my concept, I combined Chine-collé and embossing techniques, with the result being a series of polaroid format prints, able to be touched by the panel and my classmates. The viewers were surprised to discover that their eyes had been deceived when they were able to feel the texture of the prints and the Braille captions that accompanied them.

[McCoyRichard]

I'm glad to have made an appearance on The Art Assignment.  You all really know how to ask good questions!  Thanks for all of the feedback, now go take some pictures of things you want to touch, will ya?

[afroafrophee]

When I went to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, there where certain paintings that I really wanted to touch. I think it was to do with the visible textures of the work and the way that light caught some of the colours within the art. What is quite nice about the museum is that on the top floor they have a little replicates of the art work with people are encouraged to touch.    

[TransylvanianQUD]

Donald Judd's work I would say it is a must touch for the sake of future generations. Working on archaeological sites during summer, we were thrilled to see the fingerprints of ancient Romans (multi-ethnic slaves?!) in pottery, or even cat and dog paw-prints in brinks (not dry at the time), not to mention the excitement in paleography when we identified human errors (spilled ink, fingerprints and paw-prints in ink on parchments). These multiple contributions to Judd's work would give undefined eternity to the unnamed humans. Besides, Judd's work might never be finished, thus giving it the length of creation of human existence, just like Bach's unfinished Art of Fugue - with no ending he left virtually unlimited endings to each music passionate (from music professors to simple free-style musicians). I guess I am a sucker for these kind of works of art.

[stephanievallek]

Loved it. Please do more videos like this!

I'm a Contemporary Art student and I often encounter a generalized assumption that the contemporary art world consists of artists alone, when in reality, the work of curators, conservators, critics, theorists, dealers, et al. plays a crucial role as well.