Robert Gober at MOMA

I caught up with the Robert Gober show at MOMA.   I was intrigued, but not particularly excited by the show.  While you couldn't really call him a Surrealist, his art does, I think evolve from some similar notions, especially the idea that objects can convey a particular meaning in the gallery context.  Thus his endless sinks without faucets (eventually with water!)

The most startling thing in the show was a large suitcase on the floor, in which, when you looked inside, you could see through a hole (about 2 feet) wide in the floor to the floor below, where water was flowing like a stream bed.   Which meant that MOMA actually drilled a large hole in their floor (with jackhammers?)   And that wasn't the only hole in the floor; in a part of Gober's 9/11 piece, a fountain (from nipples) spews water into a hole in the floor, after which, through some kind of plumbing work the water is pumped up to its source.

As per usual, MOMA does not allow any sort of photographs.

But I found some...

The fountain and a hole in the floor...

Running water...

Sink drains in bodies...

Rant alert...

I have commented before on the changes in the MOMA books on the second floor, where knick-knacks have been gradually replacing books. This time, the shelves where the newest books on art were normally featured now feature New York picture books, etc.    It begins to look like an airport shop.  All it needs is small models of the Statue of Liberty.  In addition, while I was there, in the main shop downstairs the main wall of books was just in the process of losing all its books, being replaced by more merchandise.  Now the books are safely hidden behind that wall, so hopefully no one will see them anymore, and MOMA can continue its grand transition to becoming a shopping mall.   Seriously, if a museum of modern art cannot dedicate ample space to books about modern art, it is seriously compromising its mission.   I really wonder who it is that is in charge of all of these changes.