The Gallery Visitor: Initiating Participation through Play

Upon entering the gallery, we are met with directives, narratives, and impositions set forth by an authoritative presence. Please remove your backpack. Do not run. Do not speak too loudly. Do not touch. Do not stand too close to the artworks. The presence of security guards or invigilators enforce these instructions on how it is assumed we are to behave in such a space. But do these instructions restrict participation for the visitor? Or do they enable another type of engagement; play? Once perplexed by the visitor behaviour associated with the “museum selfie” culture, this paper will suggest the value of play in the gallery, as an initiative of the visitor to curate their own participation and engagement. In order to demonstrate these ideas of the gallery and their visitors, I will exemplify the participatory practices of Erwin Wurm's One Minute Sculptures (2017), Eva Rothschild's Boys and Sculpture (2012) and Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Rooms, to illustrate the inherent connection between play, learning and embodiment and the gallery visitor.