I ran through the Modern and Contemporary wing of the Philadelphia Museum of Art recently after taking Fleisher Challenge artist Nora Salzman‘s quirky tour of the collection (more on that in another post). It was a great tour, focusing on the curatorial display strategies and how they vary from department to department and object to object. And after we finished Nora’s tour in the Brancusi galleries, I checked the ever-changing Mod-Con display. The Thomas Hirschhorn duct-taped globes are there (good to see) and it was wonderful to see Tristin Lowe’s forlorn folding chair holding center stage, with Robert Gober’s enigmatic sink with legs in the background. Lowe’s chair’s splayed legs are perfectly mis-matched with Gober’s straight and rigid disembodied limbs. I don’t know what Salzman would think but I thought it was a pretty great display. It’s not clear to me how long this pairing will be in the galleries, since they change the Mod-Con displays periodically. So check it out soon to be sure you catch it.
