DAY 6
Rhoda Ellis
What is the function of the Virtual Gallery?
Type“ Virtual Gallery” into Google and the first few hits that will come up will be commercial sites, platforms selling paintings or prints. So is the“ virtual gallery” a way to commercialise fairly traditional notions of“ art” to a wider audience? Scroll-down further and you’ ll be able to take a“ virtual tour” around the National Gallery in London. You can now become a virtual tourist, seeing the most famous works and collections from all over the world without ever leaving the comfort of your own home. In the larger rooms of the gallery you jump, or spawn, from one end to the other, and experience a 360 ° panorama from that spot. There is no doubt that the quality of the photography that has been involved is remarkable, but is that really how you would view the works were you in that space for real? – Scroll-down still further and there are a series of sites where you can“ build your own” virtual galleries, like they are levels in some video game. You become the curator of a fictitious digital gallery space, and you can post them up for all to see. Your“ virtual gallerygoers” can even leave you a star-rating, so you can rest assured your“ taste” in art has been validated by those that took the time to click-to-rate your exhibition. Or are these“ DIY virtual galleries” simply a way to showcase your own work without ever needing to go through the hassle and expense of putting on an exhibition in the physical world; certainly they will last longer. But can anything ever really replace being there in front of an artwork. Being in that space; that vast, vast space. Being in that place in the world. Being in that moment. Knowing it will never come again. The artwork is there, you are there; and then not. But why there? What is there about that place? How did the artwork get to be there? How did you get to be there? By walking into a physical gallery you are entering into a particular context. You are choosing to be part of that cultural frame-work. Those works have a history, they have been selected and validated. And by engaging with them in this way you are adding to that validation. Galleries have become our modern cathedrals, where we go to worship, to stand in awe. We go to be touched by the work, to feel something. To hear it speak to us. We go to stand where so many have stood before, as though we are on some holy pilgrimage. We go to be part of something larger than ourselves, to take part in the festivities, where the crowds