MoMA Visit

James Negri

Image, Identity and Culture

02/21/2020

As I walked into the exhibit “Private Lives, Public Spaces” at the MoMA last Friday night, I immediately felt as though I was intruding into the lives of so many different people. It reminded me of back when I was a child and home movies on VHS were still a thing. People would gather around the television and watch a video depicting their experience of a certain event. It was a way to intimately look back with those you desired to look back with. This is what I felt when watching these videos.

I think the biggest aspect of what Howard wrote about in her paper, that reflected what I saw in the movies I chose was the notion of identities across time. In one of the videos created by Edit deAk called Beyond Genre, there were multiple small movies of the person recording catching random moments in an individual's life. In one we saw a man with roller skates on, no shirt, and plastic wrap around his head, sitting in an empty loft with a revolver in his hand. He was smoking a cigarette and talking to his dog. There was no context for this, and no dialogue, but it seemed as though it was just some guy having fun a new a new apartment. There were other odd clips like this, of just people caught in their weirdest moments, moments that would only be shared by someone close to them. They were confusing and weird to someone in my shoes. The one thing I constantly thought though was, who are they now? This happened with many of these videos I stumbled across. According to what Howard said, many people’s identities shift over time, and I would assume that these people’s did as well. I found myself wondering how they had changed, and what they would think watching these videos now.

Another aspect of Howard’s writing that I saw in the movies was that of social identities in regards to a social struggle. In Howard Guttenplan’s Tompkins Square Park, we saw a group of people that looked like what we would call hippies. They were all together in this park singing and dancing, and enjoying each other’s company. They wore similar clothing, and had similar reactions to different stimuli around them. It was obviously a group of people engulfed in a similar movement, a movement that they had constructed their identity around. They had built it based on those around them, and because they were similar in ways that they could visualize, they were brought closer and accepted by those around them. They were what many would call odd, and this gathering must have been a way to combat that definition of odd. A way for them to find like minded people and fight whatever boundaries were being forced upon them. 

The final video I chose wasn’t really one focused on identity, it was more something that I found eerie and beautiful. Joseph Szkodzinski’s film Miscellaneous Reels was a mix of videos. The ones that really stood out to me were shots of the New York skyline on a gray and foggy day. There was no sound, and not much happening, but the shakiness of the camera and the atmosphere of the shots made me feel uncomfortable. This person recording was mostly alone, albeit for the few people around him who were shooting off firecrackers. They seemed like a group of young adults just enjoying life. However, I believe that we can see this movie through Howard’s lenses. In her paper, Howard talks about identity and space. According to Howard, people’s identities can change based on the space they are in. I wonder if the person recording this felt a change of identity by being in this lonely and distant atmosphere. Perhaps their shots when recording reflected their identity at that moment. 

As I said at the beginning of this paper, I felt as though I was watching aspects of people’s lives that no one other than a few people were ever meant to witness. I don’t believe that these people ever thought they would end up in an art exhibition at one of the world’s most well known galleries. Many times people have an identity that is only shared among those close to them. It’s something that isn’t often displayed in public. This gallery was a window to this quirky side of many people. For me it was a reminder that my weird and goofy side I share with those around me is a side that I share with many people. In the end it was an odd moment where I was able to witness someone’s private side in a public space.