With May I Help You?, Andrea Fraser attacks the attitudes of art gallery staff. By exploring the discourse and sales strategies habitually used, she brings to light the promise of social distinction sought in the act of purchasing an artwork.

In a gallery, a woman leaves her reception desk and approaches the camera, addressing the spectator directly. Dressed in black, with her hair pulled back in a bun and sporting a pearl necklace, she plays on the archetype of bourgeois dress codes, particularly those of American WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) culture. She offers to explain the paintings on display, which turn out to be all the same : a succession of black monochromes, the Plaster Surrogates by American artist Allan McCollum. She starts with the first one, using an interminable list of adjectives to describe it, then turns to another that is essentially identical, and offers a new explanation. The gallery owner develops a very elaborate speech on the desire for a work “bought with love”. Then she develops the lexical field of calm and tranquillity provoked by these works. She suddenly changes tone and raises her voice, demanding silence and close attention. Changing attitude again, she speaks faster and gets carried away, destabilising her audience. In another about-face, she attempts to justify herself and develops an argument based on the feelings of exclusion and frustration that museums may impose on visitors. Finally, a woman of bourgeois allure enters the gallery and engages in conversation. Two other people enter and go into raptures over the artworks. In pairs, they reproduce the same discourse we've already heard. The image disappears with a fade to black, but the voices tirelessly pursue their formatted discourse.

May I Help You? was initially interpreted by Ledlie Borgerhoff, Kevin Duffy and Randolph Miles at the American Fine Arts Co. in New York in 1991, during an exhibition in association with Allan McCollum. This performance was later played by Andrea Fraser at the Orchard Gallery of New York in 2005, for the occasion of an exhibition that also included Allan McCollum's works.

Laetitia Rouiller
Translated by Anna Knight