Sonia Boyce, 'Questionnaire'
In: Peep: Sonia Boyce. London: Institute of International Visual Arts, 1995.
I arrived this morning at five minutes to ten. Already there were about ten people here before me. By the time the museum doors opened there were about thirty people waiting to get in. On a brisk Monday morning, I thought, what do all these people want?
Why do you think people come to this museum?
1.To wander, to halt, to recollect childhood memories.
To reassure themselves of a past forever cut off from their present lives...
Perhaps!
2. Many will have come for the library at opening time.
3. Lots of reasons - to find out something, tourists who feel they ought to, to
use the toilets, to find a peaceful haven, to meet friends.
4. To look, loiter, piss and keep out of the rain.
5. To have a look, see what we have.
6. At ten on a Monday morning, probably to go to the library or for a college
project.
7. Museum plus library.
8. For leisure and educational purposes: having heard about exhibitions,
collections or displays through word of mouth; general interest from tourists;
to use the café.
9. To use lavatory / have a coffee / shelter from the weather
10. To use the toilets, library and entertain children
11. To use the toilets - cleanest and cheapest in town!
12. Educational relaxation.
13. At 10am - library books.
14. A variety of reasons.
What do you think they do here?
1. I imagine visitors to be overwhelmed by melancholia - I see them as lost
souls. In contrast young children are sometimes a bubble with excitement
and wonder, forever encountering some new surprise that we adults have
become all too immune to.
2. I have to believe that people come to the museum to look at displays and
exhibitions.
3. Enjoy the museum I hope. Perhaps learn something. Maybe be inspired
and sit in the café/gallery enjoying the atmosphere. Discover something.
4. All of the above plus drink cups of tea.
5. Look around.
6. Wander, have tea, look at things that catch their eye, point things out to their
friends or relations, choose a favourite bit.
7. Go to the library, to look around and borrow books.
8. Visit parts of the museum; follow through on particular enquiries; focus on
areas they are most interested in.
9. The above... plus sometimes notice objects or come to see a particular
exhibition.
10.
11. Beats me!!! Hopefully after visiting the toilets and library they take the
opportunity to study the displays.
12. Browse.
13. Toilets / library / browsing / café / exhibitions. Being stimulated we hope!!
14. Look around, study, research.
What are you earliest memories of visiting a museum?
1. Running out of the entrance to the British Museum during a school trip and
going in search of girls. The following day we were all slippered by the
Headmaster in front of the whole school.
2. Being taken to a Scottish castle with a museum, and being rather alarmed.
3. A natural history museum in a London park near my home - it was a regular
visiting place when I was very young.
4. I can't really remember, perhaps it was the British Museum or some other
national museum. I vaguely remember the crowds, the grandeur of the
rooms, and some luxurious materials ...
5. When my dad took me around museums with him.
6. Bedford Museum - everything was stacked up and there were things
underneath, mummy cases.
7. Natural History Museum - London, very big.
8. Visiting Versailles in France - I remember mostly the gardens. Also seeing
a Tutankhamun exhibition at the British Museum and being impressed by the
'exotic' strangeness of the exhibits.
9. The Potter Collection of small stuffed animals dressed up in tableaux:
kittens' wedding / squirrels at school etc.
10. Running through the Victoria and Albert Museum.
11. How many 10 year olds can fit into a 17th century bed without the teacher
or curator finding out?
12. Unknown.
13. The painting in Newport Art Gallery. There was a peaceful atmosphere,
time was suspended - I was about 12 (I think?) and being shagged behind
a dinosaur (copy!).
14. Can't remember.
Do you know much about the things here?
1. I suppose in some areas I do, but others are completely foreign to me.
2. I hope so, but it would be arrogant to say yes.
3. I hope so - if not I'd probably get the sack.
4. No not really. I rarely stop and look, as I seem to deal with perpetual
impermanence. I have a great love of the 'ethnographic' objects and would
like to find out much, much more about them.
5. Only on the photographic side.
6. Some things.
7. A little.
8. I know more about some things than others. More about the fine art
collections than other collections.
9. A bit about some of them.
10. Never know enough.
11. Yes, especially archaeology.
12. No.
13. Yes (fair bit).
14. No.
Do you have a favourite piece?
1. No.
2. Yes.
3. Small figure of a boar in the Archaeology Gallery.
4. The Malanggan Shark or the Abeokuta carving.
5. Amber - Cup.
6. Yes 'Votes for Women' bar of soap.
7. No.
8. Léger painting (hung in Decorative Arts display)
9. Covetable: gold and enamel pendant of snowdrops whose centres are
baby teeth! Nineteenth century. Romano-British bronze stag / carved with
ivory animals.
10. The death of the Great Bed.
11. Yes - piece of flint, not on display however.
12. No.
13. Yes, but it changes depending on current mood and enthusiasms.
14. No.
How would you know if you have the 'best' of something?
1. I would not necessarily.
2. Depends on what you mean by 'best' - many significant pieces by
important artists?
3. Depends on definition of 'best'. It might be a unique item or in the best
condition. It doesn't matter if an item is the best, in my terms. More
important is why it's here in the museum. Only the art objects are here
as the best, much of the rest are here because they are typical, not unique.
4. That depends on what you mean by the 'best' and in comparison with what.
5. By having the knowledge of the collection.
6. If it made me feel closer to the event or people it related to - or more
interested in them.
7. You're satisfied with it.
8. Through hearsay and literature; through contact with curators.
9. Usually someone else tells me.
10. Hindsight and forward projection.
11. Until something better turns up I always think I have the best.
12. Comparison.
13. Quality always shows through. Related to others it shines.
14. Don't know.
Is there a piece that you hate?
1. Lawrence's portrait of the Lamb sisters.
2. Hate is too strong, there are many things that I am less fond of.
3. No.
4. The Galle Cat at the entrance.
5. No.
6. 'L'Aprés Midi'.
7. No.
8. No piece that I hate, but I am less interested in some of the local history
exhibits.
9. Not diplomatic to say.
10. You have to have a very weird relationship to an object to hate it. The
person who made it might be a different answer.
11. No, items are insignificant and mean nothing to me.
12. No.
13. No - like colour it's all relative.
14. No.
Now that you work in a museum are they any different to how you imagined?
1.
2. Naturally, do any of us know what other people's jobs entail until we do them?
3. More hectic.
4. I always imagined they would be the places for 'imagining': elevated;
magical spaces, where you could temporarily dream and wonder about
beliefs, cultures, ways of life, distanced from our own by space or time. For
me now the word 'museum' conjures up notions of hierarchy; administration;
procedure and control. But now, largely, I exist on the 'other' side of the
doorway.
5. No.
6. Not as precious, but have more meaning.
7. Yes.
8. Less well resourced and equipped than I had thought, but this is in
comparison to national museums and galleries.
9. I've been working here too long to remember.
10. Of course.
11. No not really.
12. No.
13. Yes - you have to deal with the staff! Aspirations versus limitations.
14. Yes.
If I were to ask the visitors any questions they would be:
Is there a particular exhibit or gallery that you hate?
Is there a particular exhibit or gallery that you like?
Where in this museum would you consider to be the perfect place for a romantic 'rendezvous'?