Would you walk through?

When we live in a time of self righteousness, gratification and possession, to create an artwork that uses all three to exude the representation of themselves divulges an audience into participation. When we are invited into a space, we immediately feel accepted, wanted and needed. An artist can play on these emotions that in turn create for an artwork of relational aesthetics, creating an apathy toward the space. Some spaces challenge the boundaries of these emotions, for instance the relational space of Ulay (Uwe laysiepen) and Marina Abramovic, whose performative gallery work Imponderabilia, (1977, reenacted in 2010), which consisted of the two, standing naked in the entrance doorway of their exhibition. This tested the audience’s dedication to viewing artworks, and the lengths they would go through to be part of the bigger picture (the gallery itself). Contemporary exhibitions have an element of play that transgresses the limitations of National Galleries, but can be more inviting to their target audience, hence having more participation and acknowledgment in the contemporary art/artist scene.