Museums and Representation

The themed room in the Museum that i thought i would write about was the Scars on the Heart exhibition. It is part of the World War Two memorial section, and it had the biggest impact on me.

The exhibition had quite a lot of interactive things to do, and not everything was sectioned off.I found this interesting because as i walked through i was really not in a 'touching mood'. I felt quite sad, and was not in the mood for learning really. They were clearly trying to teach the general public about the war history. The Museum used lots of sound (heaps of things made noise), text (naturally there was plenty to read), and dim lighting, i think this was to promote the actual displays.

After this area i went to the World War Two Hall of Memories. This was a very sobering display. I texted my friend who had a grandfather in a prisoner of war camp, and then proceeded to find his name on the wall. I took a photo and then walked further down the hall, as it was just after Anzac day there were heaps of flowers and cards and stuff. The Hall was very successful in telling its story and I wouldn't have done anything to change the display, i thought it was very honourable and classy.

Robert Smithson's Museum of the Void raised some interesting thoughts for me. That piece of writing (link bellow) says that 'Museums are tombs, and it looks like everything is turning into a museum'.

I agreed with this statement to a degree. Everything in the museum was kind of fake and stale. I got very sick of looking at fake fish very quickly. By the end of walking around the museum my eyes were tired, so were my legs and also my brain. It was far too much information to take on at once, and soon i found myself avoiding things, and I felt bad in doing so.

I think this is quite interesting in that the case of most museums is that they are tombs. In fact if you go to a museum and don't expect to see dead things then your a little daft. Maybe what Smithson is trying to get at is that the commemorated dead often put a sobering tone over the whole museum. Maybe they should not be held in the same place.

http://www.robertsmithson.com/essays/void.htm

Tongan Style

The Tongan Style exhibition at Fresh gallery was something that did not interest me much. I know very little about the Tongan culture and even less about embroidery and crochet. However I do apprieciate the level of skills it would take to make a sheet or dress with this sort of embroidery on it.

I understand the position I am in as a westener, I am forced to look into this culture and art from the outside. This makes me a little hesitant to make judgements about it and such. This type of gaze is different to the male gaze. I feel the male gaze is intrusive and judgemental, and in contrast the identity gaze is careful and curious.

These sheets and dresses put the Tongan culture into what I think would be quite a contemporary context compared to normal Tongan culture. These pieces of work are associated with traditional things such as religion and marriage but in this context they are seen as works of art.

I think it would take a lot of learning to fully appreciate and understand what these works of art a really about, the gallery staff who talked to us about them mentioned that the patterns were made up of symbols. This is just a little piece of insight.