Michael Asher
Exhibition Catalog
Santa Monica Museum of Art, 2008
For this new installation, Michael Asher reconstructed all the temporary walls built in the Santa Monica Museum of Art from 1998 to the present—forty-four exhibitions' worth—to create a conceptual history of the museum.
SMMoA has no permanent collection, so its institutional history can only be understood by looking through documents and catalogs. The exhibition’s labyrinth of metal and wooden studs, which conformed to the original wall constructions, revealed how the noncollecting museum—a kunsthalle—reinvents itself with each new exhibition. Asher’s installation translated the historical infrastructure and museological process into visual form, highlighting what otherwise would remain seamlessly hidden.
Photography: Grant Mudford
Santa Monica Museum of Art, 2008
For this new installation, Michael Asher reconstructed all the temporary walls built in the Santa Monica Museum of Art from 1998 to the present—forty-four exhibitions' worth—to create a conceptual history of the museum.
SMMoA has no permanent collection, so its institutional history can only be understood by looking through documents and catalogs. The exhibition’s labyrinth of metal and wooden studs, which conformed to the original wall constructions, revealed how the noncollecting museum—a kunsthalle—reinvents itself with each new exhibition. Asher’s installation translated the historical infrastructure and museological process into visual form, highlighting what otherwise would remain seamlessly hidden.
Photography: Grant Mudford