Cooper Hewitt, Liam Lee and Tommy Mishima: Game Room

Though not technically its own exhibition, Liam Lee and Tommy Mishima’s Game Room is one of twenty-five site-specific installations part of Cooper Hewitt’s thematically expansive museum-wide show, Making Home– Smithsonian Design Triennial. This collaborative installation is, however, read as its own exhibition, self-contained in a relatively small room, each installation with its own distinct theme. Game Room responds to the truest context of its location; the former office of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, found within Carnegie’s converted mansion. The installation combines Mishima’s schematic drawings– representing Carnegie’s network of influence in education, finance, science, and geopolitics– with Lee’s neon needle-felted wool furniture, organic and buoyant in form, resembling growing fungi. Additionally, Mishima’s Monopoly-style game, Philanthropy, sits in the center of the room. All of the work, playful in color, contrasts the geometric floor pattern and dark, rigid oak walls. 

The caption of Game Room claims the installation to be a critical examination of Carnegie, who ruthlessly built his fortune to become one of the richest men. Yet, the tone of that very text contradicts what the work claims to do, instead mentioning his ‘legacy’ and ‘profound influence.’ Rather than critically examining Carnegie, the artwork is inviting. Philanthropy, a version of which is playable during museum programs, allows one to imagine Carnegie there, friendly, and encouraging sales, fundraising, and grantmaking.

Certainly, Carnegie is objectified into reinterpretations and diagrammatic maps. However, this objectification is not done critically, but appearingly celebratory, similar to how a monument might objectify one into an idea of a hero. While the framework of the installation had potential, the work contradicts the concept it set out to complete, not taking itself seriously. 

-James DeBay

(Friday, 3:00 PM class)