Emptiness is Form (Golf and Donuts)

Brian House and Sue Huang (Knifeandfork) 2009

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART (MOCA), LOS ANGELES
2009 MARCH 5, 7:00 PM

Knifeandfork appropriates MOCA's architecture for a unique mini-golf course in which visitors show off their skills, are rewarded with phone calls, and are served fresh, vegan donuts.

Emptiness attempts to merge two understood structures of social activity, miniature golf and museum-going. By playing the former in the space of the latter, participants détourne the museum itself into a site of physical competition, rowdy behavior, and cell phone use typically considered anathema to museum-going standards. Further, rather than the exhibition galleries of the museum intended for public view, Emptiness emphasizes the private, hidden spaces of the museum. Participants get an inverted view of Arata Isozaki's acclaimed building as they play through the the boardroom, the roof-top overlooking Grand Avenue and the city, the office hallways of the Curatorial and Education departments, the mailroom, elevator and stairwell shafts, and down into the underground storage bays and loading docks, ignoring the display of art while exposing the inner workings of the museum and the people who run it.

A secondary layer of meaning in the piece relates to the philosophical question of holes. Each of the golf balls used by a participant is embedded with an RFID tag programmed with the participant's cell phone number. When a ball goes into a hole, an donut chef on site is alerted to make a donut (everytime you make a hole, you make a hole). Additionally, the participant receives a phone call with a pre-recorded monologue on holes (a different one for each hole). Emptiness engages participants on the dualities of interior vs exterior, consumption vs production, positive vs negative.

Emptiness is Form (Golf and Donuts) is one of three works that Knifeandfork made while Artist in Residence at MOCA, Los Angeles. The project is documented in its entirety at the residency blog Emptiness is Form (Golf and Donuts) Archive.