CAG on museums: The Australia display at King's Gate

For the last month I’ve been working on another display to go up at Newcastle University as part of Cultural Development programme between the Great North Museum and the university. It has been another interesting challenge of time and coordination- not to mention that I’ve been running all over the UK to get in some research visits as well.

Boomerang, Australia (NEWHM 1999.H1755) 

This time around the topic of the display is Indigenous Australian material culture and politics. It has been much more fun working with Oceanic art and topics again as opposed to being slightly outside of my comfort zone working with the previous decorative arts display at the King's Gate building (Material Connections blog).

South Australian basket (B002)

Decorated emu egg, 19th century

Between all my other normal museum tasks there has been a manic push to select and photograph objects to get images together for the design team’s posters and interpretation panel design...

Western Australian shield (B056)

…pack and transport objects...

Packing the objects for transfer

…and find mounts for the objects among the museum’s many recycled past exhibition mounts.

Some of the objects were mounted by the paper conservators

Some objects are reusing recycled perspex mounts

Along with dealing with the actual objects, I have had to really sit down and think about the story line and interpretation that is available with the objects we have in the collection and what is appropriate to display. Several of the objects in the Great North Museum collections were at one point deemed inappropriate for viewing because they were sacred objects. Some were also deemed inappropriate to be seen by women. There have been a lot of issues with the restriction and regulation of Indigenous Australian collections over the years and the GNM collection is no different.

That is one of the major challenges of working with not just indigenous cultural material, but also with indigenous group rights who live in the settler nations of Australia, America, New Zealand, and Canada. Telling a story through historic objects can trap a living group in the ethnographic past, when you want to express a long cultural history, but also a thriving and continuing culture. If you’re in the Northeast the Australian display will go up in the King’s Gate building of Newcastle University on the 29th November and is open to all.

CAG on museums: The British Science Festival 7-12 September 2013

Photo by David Scharf ‘Human Lymphocyte’

The British Science Festival is taking place in Newcastle this year and is a celebration of science, engineering and technology. The festival travels to different UK cities every year and offers an array of activities to get the public involved and interested in science. There are so many things going on for the festival, but so far I’ve been concentrating on some of the more artistic displays of art, technology, and science.

Jennifer Allinson giving an artist talk in the Hatton Gallery

I attended the artist talk and opening of Jennifer Allinson’s body armour sculpture show. During her talk she explained how she created her fragile armour pieces through an mix of sewing skills, engineering to create the porcelain pieces and some of their supports, and the manipulation of materials, which is key to sculpting.

Arm bands

Corset/bodice

There was also a piece in the Hatton Gallery foyer called winter flowers, which used a mix of metal, acrylic, silk, and real tree branches.

'Winter Flowers' by Jenny Allinson

There is also the ‘International Images for Science 2013’ exhibition based on a partnership of the Royal Photographic Society and Science and Technology Facilities Council of 100 images from scientists, researchers, and others of science themed explorations, which is on at the Great North Museum: Hancock.

Photo by Robert Hurt ‘Massive star making waves’

Photo David Doubliet ‘World of Penguins, Antarctic Peninsula’

There are some slightly upsetting images for the over-sensitive public such as myself of some human maladies, and the inside of human that made me feel a bit icky, but overall some really interesting photos.

Photo by Paul Whitten ‘Retinal Haemorrhage’

I also went to a display about how barnacles reproduce and stick to surfaces in the sea, watched them feed on prawns, and looked at the kind of paint that is being used to paint ships today to keep barnacles off ship surfaces.

Live sea barnacles

On September 11, I plan on going to a lecture in the Newcastle University Fine Art Lecture Theatre on the ‘Tipping points in nature and society’. Lots happening all around this week.

CAG on museums: Creating a decorative arts exhibition on Spain and Portugal

 

When the opportunity to create an exhibition arises you don’t say no. That’s why when I was asked to help organize a display on behalf of Newcastle University to promote their collaboration with the Vamos Festival (http://www.vamosfestival.com) I jumped at the opportunity. The Vamos Festival is on for a month in Newcastle and celebrates Spanish and Portuguese cultures. The festival promises to be very arts, music, and performance based –  the backbone of any really great festival! But putting together an exhibition from the museum’s collection to represent these cultures hasn’t been especially easy since I don’t actually have much background knowledge about Spain or Portugal – unless we’re talking about food.

Spanish facon with steel blade, 1896

Detail of walrus ivory handle and inlay

The museum also doesn’t have anything that particularly corresponds to the contemporary music and vibrancy the festival will present, but does have what many museums have, lots of historic objects. In an attempt not to be too boring with this display as it’s quite small and I want to draw an audience in, I have decided to pull together an exhibition that spans Portuguese and Spanish cultures from the 5th century B.C. to the 19^th century and focuses on beautiful and skillful artistry. This will allow viewers a glimpse of the long history of Spanish and Portuguese creativity seen in decorative arts throughout the centuries.

Textile fragment, heraldry from Spain circa 1545 or later

The title of the exhibition will be ‘Material Connections: Spanish and Portuguese decorative arts’, and will include textiles, ancient religious bronze offerings, and various elaborately decorated accessories of daily life. By focusing on the decoration and artistry in Spanish and Portuguese daily and religious life, this exhibition will bring the depth of the collection into focus and connect with the more academic contributions of Newcastle University and their collaboration with the Vamos Festival. Now… to get writing all about decorative arts and get everything else done by the 14^th of June.