Three Moments of Fixed Attention: A Multi-Site Review of “Disguise: Masks and Global African Art”

The exhibition “Disguise: Masks and Global African Art” was initially conceived of and installed at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) by the curatorial duo of Pamela McClusky, curator of African and Oceanic Art for SAM, and Erika Dalya Massaquoi, consultant curator. This exhibition, which featured twelve contemporary artists utilizing a range of media—sculpture, photography, installation, performance, video, and more—exemplifies the potential for and necessity that traveling exhibitions adapt to multiple venues. Yi-Fu Tuan, in Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience (University of Minnesota Press, 1977, p. 161) hypothesized that, among other things, “place is whatever stable object catches our attention. … Each pause is time enough to create an image of place that looms large momentarily in our view.” For art historians and curators, the place that we fix through objects is often the museum. Thus, the touring exhibition allows us a unique moment to reflect upon construction of...