The MCA began as a kunsthalle, a noncollecting museum dedicated to producing rotating exhibitions. In keeping with this origin, the museum has no permanent collection galleries; works from our collection often appear in special exhibitions. This section keeps visitors up-to-date on which collection works are currently on view. Ask a Visitor Services associate (wearing a "HI" pin) about where to find them in the museum.
Short Three yellow sculptures of abstract human figures stand as if communicating with each other outdoors in an urban setting.
Long Three yellow and white forms are installed on an outdoor terrace. The forms resemble human bodies, yet they have no faces. The heads of the forms are created from coiled, hard textured material and the bodies are similarly constructed of coiled material, arranged into torsos, arms and legs. The scale of the figures is about double the size of an average person and the are arranged about a half of a figure length apart from each other. The figure on the left appears to have its head tilted to the sky, while the center figure faces to the right, where the third figure bends lightly towards the ground, hand upraised. The bright color of the figures contrasts with urban scene in the background: behind the figures a black fence, green leafy trees and tall gray buildings are visible. The sky is bright blue and the bright light of mid-day casts sharp shadows below the figures.
Short A framed text, black on white, reads "I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background". This phrase is repeated and gradually becomes distorted until illegible at the bottom.
Long A body of black text is printed on a white rectangle with even borders of white space on all four sides. The text reads "I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background," repeated without punctuation or line breaks to separate the repetitions. The text is printed in a stenciled font with gritty smudges that become more and more prominent as the text continues, eventually blending with the text at the bottom of the image, rendering it almost illegible. It has a narrow black frame.
Short Black stenciled text that reads "WE ARE THE INK THAT GIVES THE WHITE PAGE A MEANING" repeats for twenty-nine lines, gradually becoming distorted until it's almost illegible at the bottom.
Short A palm-sized digital projector is mounted a few inches away from a white wall. It projects a small image of a uniformed athlete standing in a crowded arena.
Short Two side-by-side photos each show a light-skinned hand extending away from the other. The hands each have small, bloodied wounds on their wrists and blackened fingertips.
Short A golden object, that may or may not be enclosing something, is composed of many folds almost like a stiff fabric, but appears to be hand-shaped metal.
Short A statue made of loosely woven branches fills a niche in a crumbling stone wall. The statue is in the rough shape of a human figure with its elbows bent and arms raised to its sides.
Short A photograph of a hard dirt landscape with a rectangle of planted grass that frames a depression filled with white flowers in the silhouette of a human body.
Short A white piece of fabric with a blood red imprint of a human figure is suspended on the back wall of a stone alcove. Dried branches rest in the bottom of the alcove.
On viewThomas Schütte, Ganz Grosse Geister (Big Spirits XL), 2004
