I have visited two exhibitions – Medicine Man and Tibet’s Secret Temple. As for now, I would like to share my experience of seeing the displays and speculations about what I have seen. First of all, I would like to note that being at the gallery was pleasant, as there were no too many visitors, so I had enough time to study all the displays and view them in all details. What I liked about the exhibitions and the gallery itself is that the atmosphere there helps create the needed mood, so everything you think about is what you see. At least, it is what it was like for me. Temperature, lighting, and colours all worked perfectly for making me forget about the outer world. I would like to stress on the lighting scenarios, as it was the special tool that highlighted the exhibit pieces and showed them from the best perspective.
Medicine Man is the exhibition demonstrating the personal collection of Henry Wellcome from diagnostic dolls to Napoleon’s hair (Medicine man, n.d.). What I found fascinating about this display is the way of arranging showpieces, as the logic for organizing the expo is complicated. Some pieces are arranged according to their type, the others with the reference to the period of time and cultural background they belong to. Such an intricate way of presenting the exhibits made me realize that things are not always what they seem to be, as one thing can be characterized by different perspectives and tell different stories. Speaking of Tibet’s Secret Temple, it displays the recreations of the murals from the Tibet’s temple, statues, paintings, etc. (Tibet’s secret temple, n.d.) that are arranged by type.
When I learned the details of the showpieces, I understood them in a different way. Those displayed at the first exhibition were more like fine arts and historical data. When I looked at them, I could not but think about people who wore those Japanese masks once or the way they used medical tools and even sex toys. As of Tibet’s Secret Temple, these displays were solely fine arts to me.
Even though they demonstrated some historical data, the beauty of every line and the very fact of the recreations of the murals made me think that I look at pieces of fine art, not historical artefacts. In fact, showpieces of both exhibits can be named masterpieces, as they are original, singular (Clifford 2014). In addition to that, they are seen from different perspectives – as art, as commodities, as the piece of someone’s collections and cultural heritage, that is why they may have a different value depending on what every particular visitor is looking for and what is their state of mind at that particular moment of visiting the exhibit (Ames 2003).
What I can say about the way these exhibitions influence how we see ourselves is that this impact mainly derives from the fact that they are sensory because every visitor is free to study the details of the showpieces closely (Howes 2014). Together with the detailed information provided by the audio guide, visiting these displays made me think of myself as a part of history. Somehow, I felt connected through ages to all people who were once using what I saw in their everyday lives. Moreover, the absolutely astonishing atmosphere at the gallery made the barriers between cultures disseminate, so I even felt myself the part of the cultural artefacts of which I have seen. I cannot exactly explain why it had a similar effect on me, but I believe that it is thanks to the sensuality of the displays.
References
Ames, M 2003, ‘Cannibal tours, glass boxes and the politics of interpretation’, in S M Pierce (Eds), Interpretive objects and collections, Routledge, New York, pp. 98-106.
Clifford, J 2003, ‘Collecting ourselves’, in S M Pierce (Eds), Interpretive objects and collections, Routledge, New York, pp. 258-268.
Howes D 2014, ‘Introduction to sensory museology’, The Senses & Society, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 259-267.
Medicine man n.d., Web.
Tibet’s secret temple n.d., Web.