Cabinets of Curiosities: Curating People

Aidan C

The mummy exhibit in the Penn Museum is unique in that it doesn’t clearly express this culture in a humane way. For a place that is built on humanity, the mummy exhibit portrays humans in a way that could be seen as disrespectful seeing as one of the mummies is displayed naked. The exhibit doesn’t create the feeling that the bodies were once human, and therefore the visitors end up with a distorted view on the culture. It creates a sense of distance, distance that is bridges in Penn’s other exhibits.


Andrew R

This portion of the exhibit focuses on a feasting table. In the photo below, a real table was set up to represent an actual feasting table. Behind the table was accompanying text that described the way in which people would use it. This relates to what we have been speaking about because here is an important object that’s set to scale and not surrounded by glass. Like the dioramas we made yesterday, we’re able to visually interact with this piece from all angles. The accompanying text and photos of a Jamaican feast on the panel behind the table serves as a place where the curators can add their own thoughts, which is a way that exhibits can teach visitors. However, to maintain a balance between the curators speaking for the people and the people speaking for themselves, the photos serve for the latter purpose.

 


Michél M

My photo is from the Native American Voices exhibit at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. The Lacrosse jersey below is from the Iroquois Lacrosse team. The connected squares on the jersey are apart of the Iroquois confederacy, which is still in existence today. What made this interesting to me was that this is from pretty recent years, just like a lot of the of the other artifacts in this exhibit. A lot of times when we talk about Native Americans, we speak in the past tense, as if their culture is dead. However, the curators at the Penn Museum specifically wanted to combat this.


Matt G.

When visiting the Penn Museum, the Crystal Sphere from the Qing Dynasty really stood out because of its unique history and interesting placement. One of the main topics we learned about was the importance of the placement of an artifact within an exhibit and how it impacts the viewers’ experiences. The sphere was acquired at Wanamaker’s and consists of quartz with a total weight of almost 50 pounds according to the Penn Museum. It stood out because of its placement and location to the other artifacts. It was located directly in the center of the room with light from the windows reflecting off of it to create an interesting effect. Also, it was the first thing to be seen within the China exhibit, so it drew visitors in. Overall, this is an interesting artifact that stood out because of its placement and unique look.


Jack Beard

This exhibit was displaying an unmummified body. The dressing was removed for an autopsy to research how people were mummified. This hits on a couple of the things we have been talking about. The first issue is the issue of displaying dead bodies, which is seen as disrespectful to a lot of people. The other issue raised is that museums shouldn’t take things that don’t belong to them, and especially not modify/destroy the original such as removing the dressing around the mummy.


Jacob

The Jamaican exhibit was very interesting. It displayed many tragic events that took place in Jamaica. A concept we’ve been thinking greatly about this week is how the curator makes sure the exhibit is relatable or interesting to the normal viewer. This exhibit demonstrated that because it was more or less hearing the stories from actual people. It was like the exhibit emulated people talking to you so it felt real. The exhibit also included drums and audio of music which is known to bring people together. The pictures and stories were on either wall somewhat separate. However a common theme was togetherness because in the exhibit there was a dinner table. It almost seemed like a community sitting at dinner telling their stories and including you along with it.


Mathew

I found the Egypt exhibit to be one of the most interesting, especially the mummies. In a far corner, the museum displayed actual human remains they had previously autopsied. It brings up the topic of whether or not it is human to display human remains in museums. On days we weren’t out at museums, we were given the chance to watch a presentation about putting mannequins on display or even using dead bodies. We did discuss what we thought, and many of us believed it was wrong. It seemed disrespectful to put the body of someone who was once alive on display for everyone to see. Still, the mummy was interesting to look at.


Elena
These two instruments are from the Japan Gallery. The instrument on the left is a trumpet and it is made out of gourd, ivory and leather. This trumpet is decorated with bands of various shapes. The instrument on the right is an oud or lute. The oud is made out of wood, shell, bone and mother-of-pearl. It is a traditional instrument with twelve strings and is engraved with a mother-of-pearl inscription in English and Arabic reading. These two instruments are very interesting because it shows how people were able to make and play music from their own culture. This also ties into the cultural aspect of what we have been talking about in class.


Franyeli

The pictures I took were from the Israel exhibit. It shows a women hard at work and explains what everyday life would be like. This is an issue we talked about this week during intensive learning. Dioramas, like this one, objectify people. This causes the viewer to focus on the object rather than the people who actually did these kinds of things. We saw this in multiple museums this week and in different kinds of exhibits.


Patrice
The picture is from the Roman exhibit in the Penn museum. It shows a book that people used for religion. They would use this when going to church or for everyday use. This could show how people lived their lives and with what they followed religiously. This week we talked about how religion or religious pieces can contribute to how some exhibits are displayed.


Kory 

The exhibit that I took a picture of is about a sport played back during the time of the Aztecs. The way that it is portrayed makes it seem to be very important at that time maybe like how basketball or baseball is for us today. I couldn’t really understand how the game was played just by looking at the pictures, but it seems to be somewhat of a complicated game to understand because of the odd illustration in the middle.


Miles
The Native American voices exhibit at the Penn Museum was very different,in my opinion, to the exhibits about Native Americans in other museums. They managed to show Native Americans as actual, civilized peoples, rather than savage tribal warriors. The Penn museum showed us the faces behind the cultures, not just the conglomeration of all their lineages into one or two mannequins. Whereas museums like the Museum Of Natural History in New York taught us about the culture, the Penn museum taught us about the people, and that, I feel, is much more important, as these types of people still exist today.


Aaron 
A Mummy’s Modesty: Do People have Rights after they Die?
Mummies, many museums have mummies. They are frozen in time, left as lifeless bodies left over from days gone by; they are dead. At the Penn Museum, there is a certain mummy, proudly displayed in a glass box, naked as a new born child, for anyone to observe. As I was at the Penn Museum today, I approached this mummy, this man, and I thought about life, and I thought about death, and I thought about this man, lying in a glass box, naked. He was once alive. He once walked. He once died and was mummified and buried, only to be taken from his grave to be proudly put on display for the world to see. This mummy, once a man, is now an object; he is nothing but a piece of history and a curiosity for the eye to behold. I stood there and looked. I looked at his face, shriveled and grey. I looked at his hands, gnarly and decayed. He had all the features that any man would have, but they were features that I should not have been seeing. They were features that should have been buried in a tomb, lost to time. A man, now a mummy, was buried by those who knew him, but now he is not buried anymore; now, he is an object in a museum.


Andy

This is a figure of Guanyin, widely worshiped by Chinese Buddhists in the ancient times as well as today. This figure greatly represents the religious beliefs and practices in the Chinese culture, relating to our topic about the impact of religion and superstition on cultures. The figure also reflects the ancient Chinese arts and carpentry techniques.


Shuxuan

This is a picture of an 18th century Japanese painting of the Buddhas, which was inspired by he poem on the second picture. It depicts a vivid story about a kings encountering with the Buddhas. It shows how 18th Japanese painters use their techniques and the religious influence on art.

2018 Experiences, Cabinets of Curiosities