Can Yinka Shonibare Draw Visitors to Brooklyn's Period Rooms?

One boy is playing with marbles; a girl is playing with a doll under a dining table; a boy is doing a headstand -- and so on. You have to look for them, though -- they don't jump out at you. Visitors can either go on a treasure hunt seeking the works, or they can pick up a flyer showing where these children can be found.

I wish I could show you how good they look, but the museum has not yet taken publicity photos for this part of the show. And the period rooms are behind glass, preventing me from taking my own. Instead, here's a peek at another work in the show, Scramble For Africa, 2003.

Will this ploy work? If my short time in the galleries is any indication, the answer is yes -- people were roaming the period rooms, stopping to look for the Shonibare pieces. Some were oohing and aahing about the rooms, too.

Arnie told me that the museum is in talks with other museums that also have period rooms in hopes that they'll take this installation. I hope some do.

The Newark Museum, meanwhile, has another site-specific work by Shonibare, a centennial commission -- Party Time: Re-Imagine America -- going up in the dining room of its marvelous 1885 Ballantine House, opening July 1. The house belong to the wealthy brewing family and Shonibare is staging a late 19th Century dinner party, midway through the multi-course feast.

Aside from using site-specific pieces, there are other ways to make these shows-within-a-show (or gallery) work. I'm not sure there are rules, other than that the relationship between objects has to be real.

Got any examples? Please let me know.

Photo Credits: Courtesy Brooklyn Museum (top); Courtesy of the artist, Stephen Friedman Gallery,
London, and James Cohan Gallery, New York. © the artist. Photo: Stephen White (bottom)

*Disclosure: I consult to a foundation that supports the Brooklyn Museum.