Museums and Representation.

This week we are looking at the topic resolving around Museums and the way artifacts are presented in a museum.


Tessa explained the main idea of looking at the way of showing art and history nowadays and the artists impression on this issue.


In the slide show Tessa showed us, the work by Fred Wilson - Friendly Natives, 1991, really struck a strong impression for me. It is a mock up of display of human remains along with labels that reads 'someone's sister/mother/father ...ect. This work really shows an ethnographic and archaeological exhibits statement.



















Wilson use the remixing of the museum as an art, and use the explicitly quality of his work to infrom the audience his political views.




“from bringing together objects that are in the world, manipulating them, working with spatial arrangements, and having things presented in the way I want to see them.” - Fred Wilson
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/wilson/index.html

This work reminded of a thought i had before Tessa's lesson. As I personally feel rather depressed at the fact that some of the contents that is being showcased in museums will never have a name behind it. We may never know whose remain is being displayed and what they were like, or the artist who made the artifacts and how did they end up in the museum. I was really pulled back into that though when i saw the way Wilson refering to the remains in a very personal way.


Another art that dealed with the idea of 'Representation' was Mother and Child, Divided by Damien Hirst. Who's artwork base around the idea of life and death. Mother and Child, Divided is a piece of work that shows a cow was cut in half along with it's calf, both perserved and displayed in seperate glass containers. The way the artist chose to present the objects immediately change the way people will view the displayed objects. Normally people would not take much notice of a living cow in the field, however When the artist perserves the cow and displays it as a form of artwork, the audience will react differently to it. Same content but different treatment. This relates to the way people look at the artifacts in a museum, people might have not given the same respect to the item during the time it was made, however as time past and the object ends up in the museum, and is being shown behind glass in a classic manner, people change the way they react to it, as it is now all we will get to see that piece of history.
















After the slides, we watched a short part of Artist Unkown directed by David Lan. Who came across an african musk he was really interested in, and was determined to know more beyond the object. This again relates to my idea on the unknown names behind the historical objects as well as how the museums perserve history.



Tessa gave us 3 key questions to think about for our visit to Auckand War Memorial Museum that consists of looking at cultural, natural and themed exhibition room that tell a story through the displayed objects.

The cultural objects that interested me was the Tokotokos - Maori traditional straight European style walking sticks. They were placed in a glass case that holds the individual sticks vertically up.



They are wooden walking sticks that have been beautifully decorated with carvings that show great attention to details. With further research i found out that these walking sticks are not only tools to help the elderly mobility, they holds extreme cultural/spirial importance to the Maori culture. The Tokotoko is a ceremonial carved walking stick. It shows authority and the family history of the speaker, as a sign for others of their importance in the society. Through this further reading, i come to realise why the walking sticks are so carefully carved, as they are a symbol of status.

http://www.temata.co.nz/index.php?CID=100078


Another display that i found in relation to the Tokotoko collection was the European Swords collection. Most swords bear decorative carvings on the blade as well as highly detail sculped hilts, very elegant in style. The display of the swords were very much alike the Tokotoko collection too. The one i particularly liked was the Court Sword - England, late 18th Century. I have knowledge of the use of Court Swords. A Court Sword is a functional sword, but it is more of a symbol, it is to be worn to important ceremonies, like King's business. Very much like the use of Tokotokos. The Court Sword in display was said to likely have been used as a mourning sword.



Having the discussion in class, i raised an insight on how we really look at the objects displayed in Museums. When viewing the historical items, viewers can only imagine the glory they once hold. Very much like what Tessa discussed in class, most of the time, very little or none is known about the artifact's original owners, and the little we do know was through estimation. On the other hand, another way to look at this issue is that we seem worship these items because they are from a different era and is displayed behind glass, though they are the ancient equivalent to our everyday living objects. Which personally i think is interesting, as this is a form of human satire that we all share and we dont realise we have until being looked hard at.