A group of anonymous activists held a guerrilla action at the Noguchi Museum in New York last weekend in protest of the institution’s recent keffiyeh ban for employees and related staff terminations, staging mock wall texts deriding the controversial policy.
In a press release shared with Hyperallergic by an undisclosed number of individuals taking responsibility for the action, the group stated its intent to utilize the museum’s space for a direct critique of the ban on the Arab and Palestinian headscarf implemented last September, which was described by the museum as an “update” to its dress code.
Rather than re-writing wall texts for Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi’s works on display, the group developed new texts for ordinary objects around the museum, such as a bench dubbed the “Bench of Banishment,” a chair referred to as the “Seat of Silence,” a fire alarm named the “Alarm of Annihilation,” and so on.
“This wall is a boundary the museum uses to erase culture, banning keffiyeh and firing staff who challenge its racist views,” read one label affixed to the wall.
The group also printed a variety of mock identification cards for museum administrators and board members with falsified titles, labeling Director Amy Hau the “Museum Neutrality Director” and board Co-Chair Spencer Bailey as a member of the “Board of Distrustees,” responsible for “Dissent Suppression.”
They also created and hid several keffiyeh-printed bookmarks between the pages of various books throughout the museum, according to the press release. Each bookmark includes the signature black-and-white fishnet and olive leaf designs featured on the standard keffiyeh pattern as well as a caption denoting the museum’s ban on staffers wearing the garment or any other “political dress” that could make visitors feel “unsafe” or “uncomfortable.”
“You hid the keffiyeh — now it’s your turn to find it, Director,” the group said in its press release.
A spokesperson for the Noguchi Museum did not respond to Hyperallergic‘s inquiries.
Jessica, a 40-year-old Flatbush resident who asked to be identified by first name only, told Hyperallergic that she attended the museum on Saturday afternoon, December 7, and came across some of the wall texts.
“My party and I ended up in the garden to kill some time before the 2pm tour started, and I just noticed this little tag on the bench which reminded me of this keffiyeh controversy at the museum,” Jessica said.
“So at that point on, I was kind of looking out for them, and then there was a second one in the garden,” she continued. “We were the front room and I saw a security guard notice the tags as well and pick up three of them that were outside. I saw some other people see them and then get closer too, and then I overheard this one man talking to the staff about it.”
Jessica told Hyperallergic that she found the wall text application to be a smart way of addressing the controversy, and even noted that the tags “added to the exhibition tour.”
“With Noguchi’s history — being born to a single mother as a multiracial child and a voluntary internee during the anti-Japanese sentiments — he’d probably be rolling in his grave right now with the museum’s decision,” Jessica said.
The action is one in a string of recent interventions targeting the museum’s position on employees donning the keffiyeh onsite. Late last October, protesters gathered silently outside during the museum’s annual gala and awards ceremony honoring South Korean artist Lee Ufan. Bengali British-American author Jhumpa Lahiri declined the award prior to the ceremony in response to the keffiyeh ban. Earlier that month, California-based artists David Horvitz and Ali Eyal draped keffiyehs on Noguchi’s sculptures throughout Los Angeles and Orange County in response to the museum’s policy.
The protest action also came days after Pope Francis unveiled a Nativity scene at the Vatican in Rome featuring infant Jesus laying on a keffiyeh in his manger. The Nativity was designed by two Palestinian artists from Bethlehem in the West Bank, Johny Andonia and Faten Nastas Mitwasi, and was a joint project orchestrated by by Dar al-Kalima University, the Palestinian Embassy at the Holy See, and the Higher Presidential Committee of Churches Affairs in Palestine.
