I don’t often go to museums, although I really should. Life, sadly, intervenes – but it’s my own choice to spend my weekend in front of a computer instead of going to the library, a museum, or the other cultural sights in town.
It happens occasionally, however. I was of course brought to libraries, art-installations, and plays when I was younger and a student in elementary, middle, and high school, because part of a good education is also cultural education and discussion. I don’t think I quite appreciated these brief moments of abruption in the usual academic schedule, however. To me, it was just a day a bit different from the others, where we visited some building, looked at the installations, and were guided or lectured to.
I’ve lived on my own now for over half a year, which isn’t much. But with a job, a place to live, and as a consumer of commodities and media, I view visits to museums differently nowadays. I rarely ever visit them, but when I do, it’s quite calming. In those halls with art on the walls, on the floor, hanging from the ceiling, projected, played back, and expressed in all manner of shapes and forms, I find some peace.
There’s something to walking up to an installation and inspecting it. Walking around it, looking a bit closer, letting the eyes linger on particular details. It’s silent. We are to look but not touch. To partake, we must engage ourselves – unlike the endless ads for all manner of services and goods which serves themselves up to us whether we want to or not. We live in a fast-moving world, where many impressions are ephemeral. On the contrary, time stands still in a museum. The pictures and statues don’t move. They allow you to remain, without pressure to move on or, for that matter, to stay.
I must say, I can sometimes get lost in pictures, particular pictures of nature and everyday scenes. There’s something serene to them, and I wonder about the worlds that are depicted, but which largely only exist in the image itself and in my own mind. It instils longing in me, for I wonder and want to know, but I also know that I can never know. However, I can remain in the world of a picture for as long as I like, for time doesn’t pass in it.
