“Hide and Seek” at MCA

by Kathryn Born

“What did the person behind the front desk just say?  It was something about a hurricane…”

Let’s start over. The MCA is getting all kinds of non-traditional and dematerialized on us, and it’s about to get weirder. Never mind random stuff written on the wall text panels , when you go into the MCA, the person behind the desk may just say something totally out of left field.

It’s art, my friend, art. It’s Tino Sehgal’s piece and they’re just following directions, reading a headline from a newspaper.

But like everyone else, I didn’t know what it was, what it meant, and didn’t want to reveal myself as a complete idiot. So I did what 90% of all the patrons do: smile politely and say, “thank you” and run away.

So the wacky kids behind the counter upped the game, and started focusing on gruesome murder-based headlines. It helped “increase the level of dialogue,” and people started asking questions about the words just spoken.

(click images for full size)

“Hide and Seek” Hidden Exhibit

Now, I’m not good at shit like this –  I flunk every IQ test, scavenger hunt and scrabble game I’ve ever been forced into. So I couldn’t find some of them and my brain shut pretty quick when I tried it, but the ones I found were cool. I wrote on an envelope, and liked Stephanie Brooks’ funny crayon titles in the cafe.

Go get ‘em campers. And keep asking questions. I have grown to realize that no one else knows what’s going on either.