July 18, 2004

The British Museum

Went to the British Museum today; the last time I was there I worked in the Reading Room but only visited one exhibit, of early books. Today I spent a good few hours and saw three exhibits:

Living and dying, an exhibition that "looks at how people around the world deal with the tough realities of life, averting or confronting trouble, sorrow, need and sickness" (online tour). Not as drippy as they make it sound. The bulk of the exhibit consists of artifacts from different cultures. Cradle to Grave, an installation piece, was very cool. And moving:

Cradle to Grave explores our approach to health in Britain today. The piece incorporates a lifetime supply of prescribed drugs knitted into two lengths of fabric, illustrating the medical stories of one woman and one man.

Each length contains over 14,000 drugs, the estimated average prescribed to every person in Britain in their lifetime. This does not include pills we might buy over the counter, which would require about 40,000 pills each.

Sobering to see all those tiny pills laid out in neat rows, covering so much space.

I also saw Matisse to Freud: A Critic's Choice, Alexander Walker's bequest of his fabulous collection of more than 200 twentieth-century prints and drawings, including Jim Dine's "Five Paintbrushes (Sixth State)" (1973), which I particularly liked:

Finally, I saw Enlightenment,¹ "a rich new exhibition using thousands of objects from the Museum's collection to show how people understood their world in the Age of Enlightenment" (online tour). The focus here is on eighteenth-century approaches to various developing branches of science. The exhibits are displayed much as they might have been at the time, in various glass-topped cases, and the refurbished King's Library is the perfect setting for showcasing an approach to artifacts rather than the artifacts themselves. An interestingly self-conscious move, as the British Museum was itself founded in 1753.

Before I left I popped my head in the former Reading Room where I spent many contented hours doing dissertation research, but was unable to stay. Of course the new library site was needed and I was relieved to hear that the BM was going to maintain the Reading Room, but in fact it is not the Reading Room any more; even though it is the actual physical space, apparently unchanged, it has become a model gesturing to its own past, no different from any other exhibit despite its much-touted function as information hub for the museum. When I was there last it was a working library; the only people there were librarians or readers. Now it is filled with the same crowds who stand in front of all the other displays. The Great Court, in which the Reading Room is centred, is grand and airy, a beautiful space. But still, I am sad.

¹ Beware the pulsing icons.

Scribbled at July 18, 2004 03:39 PM AST | Hmmm? (1) | TrackBack (5) | Link Cosmos | More? art/kultur, c18th, moving around




Here's what others have to say about The British Museum:

» British Museum exhibitions from Marja-Leena Rathje
Miriam Jones of scribblingwoman is visiting the UK and writes about some exhibitions she saw at the British Museum. Read her interesting comments then go visit the virtual tours ( a wonderful invention for computer chair travellers like me!): The......[read more]
Tracked: July 18, 2004 07:27 PM

» British Museum exhibitions from Marja-Leena Rathje
Miriam Jones of scribblingwoman is visiting the UK and writes about some exhibitions she saw at the British Museum. Read her interesting comments then go visit the virtual tours ( a wonderful invention for computer chair travellers like me!): The......[read more]
Tracked: August 17, 2004 04:25 AM

» Back home from flaschenpost
Some bloggers are very good at writing about their research and conference trips while they're on the road. It always sounds so sophisticated and enticing. Using a few minutes in the hotel or from a library computer to write a......[read more]
Tracked: September 18, 2004 06:59 PM

» Back home from flaschenpost
Some bloggers are very good at writing about their research and conference trips while they're on the road. It always sounds so sophisticated and enticing. Using a few minutes in the hotel or from a library computer to write a......[read more]
Tracked: September 18, 2004 07:18 PM

» Back home from flaschenpost
Some bloggers are very good at writing about their research and conference trips while they're on the road. It always sounds so sophisticated and enticing. Using a few minutes in the hotel or from a library computer to write a......[read more]
Tracked: February 9, 2005 09:08 PM