I spent another day at the National Gallery of Victoria today as part of my internship within the Fashion and Textiles Department. The NGV was crazy busy, I'd forgotten that not only is it school holidays, but the Art Deco exhibition from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London just opened a couple of weeks ago. The result? mammoth lines and mayhem.
After I finished up my work with the curators, lovely Dani let me into the exhibition for free on her security pass. There really was some great stuff on display - anyone with any interest in history, design, furniture, fashion, painting, ceramics or textiles would have a field day.
But the downside of attending the exhibition at such a busy time was being reminded how rude and annoying people can be, especially when they're huddled together in swarms moving around the room from piece to piece.
My first pet peeve in the initial busy room was an inability to get close enough to any of the pieces to actually read what they were. Every time an opening was created a little old woman would step in and fill the space. And not wanting to hip and shoulder a senior citizen out of the way, I was left piecing together the sentences over heads and under arms.
In the next room, I encountered more consciously annoying people. Well, mainly one woman really. There I would be, standing by myself in front of an image or cabinet. Plenty of room around me, plenty of space to stand. But no, not once, not twice, but repeatedly, this woman would come and wedge herself directly in front of me, between myself and the artwork. Necessary? I think not. Rude? mmmyes. Bad gallery etiquette? Uh, hell yeah!
Another- actually rather amusing- characteristic of the annoying gallery attendee? Discussing art as though one possesses very little brains at all. Now I don't pretend that I know very much at all about art or ceramics or furniture or the Art Deco period in general, but really....
Direct Quote: "Ohhhh look honey, look at that chair! Oh I love how they've put the legs and the chair like that! OOOH and it's pink!! Perfect for me!"
The final straw was in the last room when I moved to the next dress along the wall only to step into a big, smelly cloud of gas. That extra little cherry of class and sophistication on top of the whole frustrating cake.
Having said all that, I'm not a total bitch, and there were many lovely people there also, who seemed to be genuinely interested and enjoying the exhibition. Which I recommend anyone in Melbourne goes to see.
kiss hug
