Terry Wogan used to have a running joke on his daily radio programme, about his “other listener”. (Or course, he had several million of them.) I was always reminded of the way in which his gag echoed the references by the Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard to his “other reader”. I did wonder whether Wogan was more widely-read than I had otherwise suspected. They both came to mind today as I was invigilating my exhibition at the Manor House Art Gallery in Ilkley. Any reference to “my other viewer” would have to be equally tongue in cheek, as I have been very pleasantly surprised and gratified by the number of people who have been viewing my show.
Visitor behaviour in galleries constantly surprises and intrigues me. Often I get the urge to ask them what is actually going on inside their heads, but have never plucked up the courage to do so. There are those occasions, however, when the opportunity to talk to visitors arises spontaneously, and it has been very gratifying to receive some very appreciative and thoughtful comments. There are also those occasions when, simply by their behaviour, you realise that quite a lot is going on for them, such as the elderly woman who spent a good fifteen minutes during this morning sitting in front of some of my pictures.