May I Help You?

May I Help You? examines the way in which art legitimises social differences. Andrea Fraser first presented this performance in New York in 1991, as part of the Allan McCollum exhibition, Plaster Surrogates. Fraser hired three actors from the American Fine Arts Co., making them appear as if they were members of the exhibition team. During normal gallery opening hours, they addressed visitors with a fifteen-minute monologue.

The script, inspired by conversations with artists, collectors and dealers, as well as people outside the art world, incorporated six different voices, each representing a different social position. While actors began by adopting the words and the quiet, calm tone of a gallery owner talking about works ‘acquired for love’, the tone would suddenly change, and in a raised voice demand silence and the visitors’ attention, hectoring them like someone from outside the art world. To the visitors’ surprise, each adopted voice denied, in an implicit or explicit way, the one preceding it. Later, the script was adapted so Fraser herself could interpret the role, as she did on several occasions, including her performance during the exhibition Andrea Fraser. L’1% c’est moi presented at MACBA, Barcelona, in 2016.