“The outside world must not come in, so windows are usually sealed off. Walls are painted white. The ceiling becomes the source of light . . . .The art is free, as the saying used to go,’to take on its own life.'” (O’Doherty, 1976)
McEvilleys introduction focuses on the Gallery space as one suspended in time, shut off from the outside world. There is a sense of reverence in a religious/spiritual sense and he likens the space to an egyptian tomb. By ‘entombing’ the space, there creates the illusion of a higher metaphysical realm and the preservation of the undying beauty of the masterpiece. The viewer forfeits the self and becomes the ‘cardboard spectator’ with a ‘disembodied eye’.
The gallery space is literally a blank canvas. It is defined as a transcendental space but also perhaps a liminal space in some sense as the displays are temporary and ever changing. This adds to the sense of ‘magic’ and otherworldliness.
References
O’Doherty, B., 1976. [online] Arts.berkeley.edu. Available at: <https://arts.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/arc-of-life-ODoherty_Brian_Inside_the_White_Cube_The_Ideology_of_the_Gallery_Space.pdf> [Accessed 31 August 2020].
Landscape, Place and Environment 