In Thursday’s class, we touched on how comics, or Asterios Polyp specifically, should be displayed in museums. When I found that David Mazzucchelli’s work was the subject of a 2009 exhibition, Sounds and Pauses, at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA; now seems to be closed but continues programming), I was curious as to how the comics were actually shown.
Sounds and Pauses focused on Asterios Polyp, but also featured Mazzucchelli’s City of Glass adaptation, some short stories, and some Batman and Daredevil stories. In addition to published pages from Asterios Polyp, the exhibition included original sketches and notes as well. Altogether, these materials highlighted both Mazzucchelli’s process and finished work. I think this approach allows viewers to experience the comics more in-depth, though not exactly in the same way they would if they were reading them at home. Instead of the viewer piecing together the graphic narrative story as they would when they read it from page to page, they are instead imagining the story behind the artist and his artwork. This imagining is just as valuable. I think knowing more about Mazzucchelli’s process, for example, how he adds color and texture after he draws, informs my interpretation of Asterios Polyp. Knowing that he works with the finished product in mind helps me better see the repeating motifs and full-circles that the narrative features.
Even though MoCCA’s exhibition potentially gave more context to visitors for Mazzucchelli’s work, the museum’s primary audience is/was people who are already familiar with comics. For Sounds and Pauses, visitors probably had read some of his publications or were knew about his style and working process. In this situation, the exhibition probably more likely served as a supplement rather than an introduction to comics as an art form or to the narrative of Asterios Polyp. This perspective in who an exhibition’s audience is, in addition to which works would be representative of the artist’s career, plays a role in how the curator decides to display the works and what kind of exhibition text to provide.
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