This Is Not An Artwork (But It Was)

I wrote earlier this month about an exhibition currently up at the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery at Columbia University. Slate Magazine just published a generous critique of the exhibition and premise. John Reed comments on his initial experience:

When we arrived (a friend went up to the show with me), Javier, who was at the front desk, promptly informed us that we could do what we wanted—touch the works, photograph them, roll them around, pick them up, turn them over, whatever. This was a not-exhibition of not-art, and as not-gallery-goers, we were free to behave as advanced primates.

Tags: aesthetics, art, aura, columbia university, damage, ethics, handling, insurance, museums, no longer art, Property, sarmiento, the salvage art institute, value