The White Cube

The building rises up behind the old streets of Piccadilly like a cathedral. The only materials it is visibly made of are white painted concrete, steel and glass. The building at Mason’s Yard is the latest gallery space of Jay Joplin’s White Cube. Recently build, its name is no lie: this is the ultimate White Cube.
When you get inside, the place resembles all what comes to mind when we think of a modern gallery space. White walls, sealed windows and artificial light coming from above. The outside world is completely blocked out. Keeping out change and time of the turning world around us, the White Cube becomes a non-space. This building has no traces of life: no scratches on the walls, no faded colors or light, just white perfection. Non-space can in science be seen as the opposite of a black hole. It is not an empty space; it is a volume empty of space. It has no identity.

The high ceilings, the white walls and the light do however suggest we are in some sort of sacred place. The gallery becomes like a chamber of eternal display, almost like a church or the holy buildings in ancient Egypt. Art is ritually presented, and through the feeling of eternity we are suggested all the art we see in here is indeed a masterpiece.

The religious aspects of the white cube also have effects on us as a spectator. When we enter this building, we leave a certain part of ourselves outside the door. We switch on our artistic attitude. This is necessary for us to know how we should behave in such a space. Our artistic attitude is switched on by the surroundings of the white cube. This heavy context immediately tells us we are looking at art, we are not supposed to touch it, and we have to keep quiet. Also, we know we are expected to think about the art, before we can understand it. This means what we left outside of the white cube is our body. All we need is our eyes connected to our brains. When entering the white cube, we accept to be a reduced version of ourselves. We are just spiritual beings now.

On the one hand, the white cube draws all our attention towards the artworks, glorifying them. The space does not distract us and gives us a breath of fresh air from the busy world outside. But on the other side the white cube is a prison of social context and lacks everything that defines life and therefore art. By defining the context of art in such a heavy way, it almost becomes irrelevant if there is an empty canvas on show or a great work of art.