…the excessive perfomance of desire on Fraser´s part in little Frank and his carp, a work where an “over-receptive viewer” (in John Miller´s words) inherits the model of the widly-opened subjectivity first drafted in the characters of Fraser´s earlier critical performances, woven together from a congeries of social and institutional sources… In Litlle Frank and his carp, Fraser had herself filmed with hidden cameras as she enters the lobby of Frank Gehry´s architecturally spectacular Guggenheim Bilbao, requests an audio-guide to the museum, and begins explicitly to follow its instructions…F

For this reason, Andrea Fraser’s video sticks out. Shot in Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim, Bilbao, the film pokes fun at the herd mentality of today’s museum visitors and patronising “edutainment” strategies employed by establishments desperate to pack them in. Fraser is aided bay a ridiculous soundtrack. On screen we watch her pick up an audio guide and respond to its treacle-voiced commands to explore the curvy volumes of the Guggenheim foyer. Hitching her dress above her waist, she fondles a limestone wall with alarming impropriety.

The over-receptive viewer is the object of Little Frank and His Carp (2001). Here, a visitor to the Guggenheim Bilbao takes her audio tour utterly to heart. For this, Fraser enlisted several assistants to videotape her inside the museum with hidden cameras. Extolling the wonders of Frank Gehry’s quasi organic architecture, an ostentatious Acousti-guide voice suggests that the building might even comfort viewers faced with difficult or demanding art.

In Fraser’s worldview, Rockefeller’s support, politically inspired in part, for Mexican modernism was a precursor of contemporary cultural globalism, especially the kind propounded by Thomas Krens. The Guggenheim Bilbao, located in the heart of Spain’s Basque region, is Fraser target in Little Frank and His Carp (2001), a video presented on a monitor at the entrance to Friedrich Petzel Gallery. Acoustiguides have long been grist for this artist, most notably in Introduction to the Whitney Biennal (1993), her contribution to that exhibition.

In an inversion of her familiar role as museum guide, the short and sweet Little Frank and his carp, seen at Friedich Pastel gallery, finds Fraser in the unaccustomed position of happy museum visitor. Surreptitiously shot at Guggenheim Bilbao, it depicts an unannounced performance for which Fraser cheerfully strolls through the atrium of Frank Gehry’s building led by the ubiquitous educational tool of the 21st-century museum, the audio guide.

Andrea Fraser “It’s about showing my disgust with the dominant discourse,” intones this wily artist in Official Welcome… Known for exposing institutional contexts and cultural spectacles, she plays all the roles, rolls out all the platitudes, and ends up Vanessa Beecroft undies and high heels. Even better, in this two-gallery, five-video show, is her performance at the Bilbao Guggenheim as a museum visitor who takes her audio-guide tour a bit too literally.

(...) La operación del frottage de Fraser ridiculizaba la estrategia de auto-mitificación del Guggenheim-Bilbao con su énfasis en la iconicidad de sus muros alabeados que lo separan de un afuera vulgar y pedestre. Una estrategia tan vana como banal (...)