Gerald Smith

Can’t Leave It Alone ©2003 responds to an ongoing conversation within the art world about the relationships between artist, studio, gallery and museum. Postmodern characterizations of these relationships as polymorphous and the studio itself as an either unnecessary, incidental or convenient element in the production of art point to the profound transformation in how the artist’s studio is understood now from a generation ago. By inserting my working studio (where I am editing videos for another artwork) into an Encyclopedic Museum (The Minneapolis Institute of Art) I am making present the ontological origins of my artwork and the absence of like origins for the “orphaned” artworks displayed through the museum. These origins are important because they give context and a contingency to each artwork that is lost once they leave the studio for consumption elsewhere. Moreover, my studio performs an added role in positioning a contemporary living space within a museum well know for its’ exhibition of historically accurate “Period Rooms”.