On this Thursday, I went to the Neue Galerie for an observation exercise. This exercise is basically about deriving information from a liminal space and recognizing the nuances that we usually ignore in daily life. I picked this place as my liminal space because it’s a “transition” to me instead of a “destination.” The definition of “gallery” to me is a place that brings us inspirations; people come here to visit the artworks, once they’re satisfied or derived ideas, soon they will leave to continue the other things in their life. It’s a place like the gas station, the car must be fed before next ride. People come and stop by here for the great paintings, and then they will dismiss themselves. During the time that I set in front of a famous painting from Klimt, I felt that I was spending time with myself which involves deep conversations. I thought about my relationship to the world, my duty as a reporter of art. I thought about my influence on the people of this world, would it be just much about how this place serves the city or even more than that. Then I was affected by the exterior world and change my focus to the space around me. And I started to realize something special in this limited area. This place is not as quiet as I thought it would be, people were always talking and walking around; a lot of people stood for the paintings in the room, but nobody was standing right in front of one painting which named “The Woman in Gold.” I was not sure if people are scared to stand in front of it because it’s too famous and respected. There was a blank border that added to the painting, and the whole image looks like a Polaroid photo; the curtains in the room were in black, but later I spotted on that, it was actually in a dark shade green. The dim lights of the room make these paintings more mysterious, which made me believe that these paintings are alive in a sense. I enjoyed the time I spend there, and it made me detect so many things that I could hardly observe in real life.
