Trending Now

Arts

Tilda Swinton Slept in a Glass Box at the Museum of Modern Art

And she's going to do it at six more random times in the next year

By March 25, 20130
  • Share
  • Read Later
Richard Drew / AP

Actress Tilda Swinton performs the art of sleeping in her one-person piece called "The Maybe" in New York City's Museum of Modern Art on March 25, 2013

What did you do this weekend? If catching up on sleep was on your agenda, Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton shared the same weekend of relaxation. Only she did it in full view of a museum full of gawkers.

The British actress made a surprise appearance on Saturday at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, sleeping in a glass box as part of an installation called The Maybe. And she was spotted snoozing there today as well, Gothamist reports. BuzzFeed snapped this picture:

(MORE: Christo’s Heavenly Exhibit, Big Air Package, Unveiled in Germany)

And it’s not the only time she’ll be taking a snooze at the Manhattan museum. Swinton will be sleeping in the elevated box — which includes cushions and a water jug — six more times throughout the year. And like the one on Saturday, her performance will be unannounced. Yet this weekend’s piece was curious timing, as Swinton’s artful napping follows her recent gig starring in David Bowie’s new music video, in which she does the “electric knife ballet.”

Swinton first performed this role in 1995 at London’s Serpentine Gallery — attracting more than 22,ooo visitors — and again in 1996 at Rome’s Museo Barracco. The exhibit is being put on in collaboration with Turner Prize–shortlisted artist Cornelia Parker.

The Twitterverse has long considered Swinton’s existence an art piece itself. Kick-Ass actress Chloë Moretz tweeted an Instagram photo of Swinton in the box:

Comments (and jokes) on Swinton’s art-imitating-life endeavor have been tagged #TheMaybe and #Tildaing:

 

14 comments
  Livefyre
Newest | Oldest
martywebphone
martywebphone

Of course it's not Art (he's 40ish and takes your ticket when you enter the museum) it's obviously Tilda in the box.


What's with all the confusion?

 In closing 

"Art" older security guard who works the main door.

"Tilda" strange actress lady in glass box.

WarrenTenney
WarrenTenney

"How about making Tilda Swinton hang out outside Penn Station all day and letting a homeless person take a nap at MOMA?"

I don't know if this guy saw the pictures. I think she IS a homeless person.

WarrenTenney
WarrenTenney

I want to see if I can get my piece into this museum to be displayed next to hers. It's called "Frequently Honking Train Horn"

richlehmann711
richlehmann711 like.author.displayName 1 Like

She sleeps in a small box because like all hollywood celebrities they love attention and the smell of their own farts.

PeterKoshoMcKenna
PeterKoshoMcKenna

She's leveraging her celebrity to make her mere presence doing nothing - sleeping - somehow interesting.  There are a couple questions raised here - what if it a non-celebrity were sleeping in the box?  What if she were "doing" something?  But that's about all there is to it and I prefer her movies.  I did hear her say in an interview that she is more of a film actor because she prefers to keep her presence inside, whereas stage actors have to project their presence outwards.  So perhaps this piece is an extension of her film presence, because sleep is the ultimate withdrawal.  But it's still pretty thin.

TheBattman
TheBattman


Where's the "art" in this?  A basic rectangular box with a basic black metal frame... with someone sleeping in the box.  


Again - where's the "art" part of this?

richlehmann711
richlehmann711

@TheBattman It is social commentary about how desperate celebrities are for attention and how much they love the smell of their own farts.

malber
malber

@TheBattman that unsettled feeling... that's the art.  art is about making you feel something.  deeply disturbed is a feeling.

TheBattman
TheBattman

@malber @TheBattman What "unsettled feeling"?  That wasn't me.  Didn't really "feel" anything.  Just all seems so pointless - maybe even self-serving for her.  Again - there is no "art", art also implies some form of creativity.  Sleeping in public "on display" has been done.


By your definition of "art", one could walk in to that gallery, take a dump in the middle of the floor, add a sign with a name on it - and it is now "art", because I guarantee most folks would be more than "unsettled" by it.  It takes more to actually be "art", just as a recording of traffic buzzing by isn't "music".

WarrenTenney
WarrenTenney

@TheBattman @malber I guess you'd just have to arrange that with the curator. Let's face it, modern art today is nothing more that a clique. If art were simply a matter of making people "feel" something, then you could get anything into a museum, since everybody knows how to make people feel something. What it boils down to is that you have to make a name for yourself by doing something that people think is important enough that, from that point on, you can do no wrong by them. After that you can sleep in a box, crap on the floor or do whatever you feel like and it's art simply because you're in the clique.

JoannaRobinson
JoannaRobinson

There is something deeply unsettling about this.

ehinn99
ehinn99

how about having Kate Upton take a dump on her face while she sleeps..... pfff

Art these days suck!!