Haacke

Question 1: Haacke’s works question the role of politics in art. On pg 166, the author described a MoMA visitors’ poll where the spectators have to actively take part to vote on whether “the fact that Governor Rockefeller…in November?” I kind of wonder if the museum-goers really participated in the vote and what kind of thoughts they had when deciding if to vote in this poll. Other than that, how does this piece of work interrogates “art insitution’s supposed purity and purportedly a mere background for equally pure art objects”? Why would the poll qualify as an “art object” in the first place?

Question 2: On pg 177, the author talked about Haacke’s Shapolsky real-estate piece which revealed a “web of obscured family ties and dummy corporations that veil the identities of principal property owners”. I feel like this is not so much an artwork as an investigation report. Is this really something an artist, instead of a reporter would do? Is there any aesthetic value attached to this “artwork”?