Things Aint What They Used To Be

As I am starting to visit the vast array of museums and exhibitions in London, my next lecture prompts me to ask the question of exactly who creates these spaces of display and why? For example, The V&A fashion exhibitions...these are fantastic collections of exquisite, luxurious designs from the centuries past and present but from the point of view of whom?...the upper class and elite, it seems as these are all high-end designers who are there for us to admire...but there is nothing reflecting the point of view of the lower classes and what these people might have worn.  So why should we trust the person who chose these specific displays? Who should get to decide what is shown and what isn't? After all, these are public displays, so why should they only reflect the taste of one class?

John Galliano
2010 Display
V&A Museum

Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel
2010 Display
V&A Museum




The authorship and ownership comes into question also with a lot of museum displays.  A lot, if not all of the objects shown in British museums today where collected by western explorers...so essentially white men going to non-white countries, taking the items they deem valuable and validating these nations' culture.  While visiting the Wellcome Collection in Euston, I was particularly taken aback by the display of a real person from the 12th century, mummified in the foetal position with a haunted look ingrained on its skull...









    



"The hatred by an entire civilisation for its own foundations"
John Baudrillard

By taking these people from their resting place and displaying them to be inspected by us in a museum, they are essentially being destroyed.  They where preserved in this way due to the belief of life after death, not to educate us.  Who decides that these people should be displayed?

It is very interesting food for thought when next visiting a gallery or museum.  Instead of just looking at the items on display, perhaps I will question the reasons behind the objects and their backgrounds, who chose them and whose story and power are they there to convey?