I know I am not alone when I say there’s nothing I enjoy more than a good nap.
Whether in a rocking chair on the back porch, on the shore of my favourite lake or on the couch in front of the TV, I never pass up a napping opportunity.
My friends and family make fun of me. They say I can fall asleep anywhere in any position, even standing up.
Let them laugh. They don’t understand the importance of a well executed nap. In cultural centres all around the world art lovers are paying good money to catch a glimpse of creative napping at its best.
Tilda Swinton is the current media darling of the professional napping world. This Academy Award winning actress is a performance artist and her exhibit entitled The Maybe has just opened in New York City.
Ms Swinton sleeps in a glass box at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa). Visitors to the museum can stop by and watch her napping at their leisure.
Her performances last for seven hours at a stretch and then when the museum closes, she gets up and goes home.
No kidding, that’s Tilda’s gig. This piece of performance art first appeared in London in 1995 and was presented in Rome the following year. After seven years of negotiation MoMa has finally booked this exhibit into the Big Apple.
The glass case stands on four legs. It contains a mattress and Ms Swinton along with a water jug, her pillow and her reading glasses. The platinum blonde actress is dressed in jeans, sneakers and a button-up shirt.
Her eyes are closed during the show and she doesn’t move around much although she can be seen in a number of different poses over the course of the day.
(Note to friends and family - that’s exactly what I do when I nap. Am I an artist, too?)
Tilda’s state of consciousness and the workings of her mind during the performance remain a mystery.
Still, you have to wonder what she’s thinking about, or dreaming.
MoMa’s curator has the exhibit booked until the end of the year but good luck seeing The Maybe even if you are in NYC. The glass case appears randomly and only the artist knows when it will be seen next.
What’s more, it is never on display twice in the same gallery location. You will have to be lucky to catch Tilda napping. Don’t ask why. Performance art can be quirky.
For example, in years past MoMa has hosted exhibits by performance artist Marina Abramovic. In one scenario, visitors could squeeze themselves between two naked strangers in a narrow passageway.
In 2011 Marin Kotak transformed a Brooklyn Gallery into a maternity ward complete with a 10-foot birthing pool. She wanted to share what she considered the “highest form of art.”
Her “durational” performance piece included giving birth to her first child. A midwife was part of the exhibit. The hospital was on standby.
This museum performance culminated with a healthy nine-pound two-ounce boy being born. Mother and son are doing well.
These performance art pieces are intended to amuse, mystify, shock and even mortify the audience.
There are usually many unanswered questions including “why?”
I can’t answer that but Tilda Swinton’s The Maybe is my dream job.
Napping for a living, or possibly mattress testing, seems to be where much of my natural talent lay.
I wonder if MoMa might be interested in exhibiting an overweight Canadian napper, complete with snoring, farting, grunting and occasional drooling on the pillow.
Hmm, maybe not.
