I'm sitting in the gallery right now, a little hungover, a little tired, and people have been coming in and out since I've gotten here. I have had some weird visitors before but this guy who came in earlier just might take the cake. He came in and immediately asked what things were on my desk pointing and asking, "What's that? What's that?" I told him and he just said, "oh..." kind of like he wasn't really listening to me. I'm not so sure, it was strange. Afterwards he asked if he could put his umbrella on the ground and I told him it was fine. He walked over to the wall where I thought he was going to set it down but all of a sudden he veers away from the wall and he walks over to one of the pieces in the middle of the room that was on a table. He then put his umbrella underneath the table. Afterwards he proceeded to pull out a plastic bag with a magnifying glass to look at everything. Then he touched one of the pieces. I told him to please not touch the art and he said to me, "It's a diary, it's ok." UH NO IT'S NOT. This segues nicely into the things I have a problem with: gallery edition.
1. People touching the art - I think this is common knowledge, maybe I'm just super aware because I've taken classes and stuff, that you do NOT touch the art unless there is a sign encouraging you to do so. This is always so annoying. There have been so many sculptures or things with cool texture and people will come in and just put their grubby hands all over it! No! What is worse is that it is almost always an adult. I think I've told one or maybe two kids to not touch anything. I've told way many more adults. Does this seem weird to anyone?? It is super weird to me.
2. People asking to come in - this is probably my biggest pet peeve. I will be sitting at the front desk, there will be people inside walking around, and people will stop by the entrance and say, "can we come in? Is it alright?" I just want to shake that person, whoever asked me that, and say "no you cannot come in, these people are actually works of art and I'm sitting here because I have nothing better to do."If there is a sign out front and I am sitting here with the doors open with the lights on then yes, the gallery is open for business and you can look at stuff.
3. People asking if they can buy theatre tickets in the gallery - I changed my mind. This is actually my biggest pet peeve. Why the heck would you buy anything from me, in this gallery, sitting behind a tiny desk when there is a box office literally 30-40 feet away from here. If someone is coming in from the front doors then the box office should be the very first thing you see. The gallery is not in-view when you first walk in. UGH DUMMIES. But really, I get so annoyed. Just makes no sense.
4. People who walk in and pretend to not see me - oh these people are real, and they sook. I have to say hello to every person who walks in and sometimes people will walk in and not listen to me and just b-line it to the first thing they see. UH HELLO. I'm here. You are rude. I am done.
5. The police - you thought I was done but nope there are more. It's kind of weird that I added the police to the list but if you were part of this operation you'd understand. I have to call the police before my shift so they can come open the gallery for me. It is a nice thing to do for us but man oh man do they love to take their sweet time. I usually get here around 10 minutes early so I can call them and they can get here and I'll have a few minutes before the gallery is officially open but alas, this does not happen so nicely. Sometimes I wait 20 minutes for these clowns. Yeah, I called the police clowns. Please don't arrest me. They can also get very snooty. If I am about 30 seconds away they will get mad that I'm not actually there. One time I was 30 seconds away from entering the building and because I am honest and stupid I told them I was about 30 seconds away and they made me call them back when I was actually there. Not necessary. No one was there so it wasn't like I was calling and then someone was already there so I was making it inconvenient for them. Ugh, I hate it.
6. One piece right now - this will be a quick one. There is a piece in the gallery right now that is a video that plays on a loop and it last about 15 minutes and at the end of the 15 minutes there is an audio that plays with the video for about a minute. This is the most annoying audio I have ever had to sit through for 3 hours. It is the worst.
So that's it. Well, there are other things but I have to go in a few minutes so I have to wrap this up. It's raining outside so it will be a wet walk home.
Thanks to anyone reading this and until next time,
Caroline
