Mining the Museum

Here is my reflection on our theory task this week...


The first gallery space you encounter upon arriving at the V&A’s Grand Entrance, is labelled ‘Medieval and Renaissance Europe: 1350-1600’. The title of the gallery naturally leads the viewer to expect a collection of objects from early European history. However, academics have often noted that museums are ‘a machine for transmission’ (Keenan, 1995), not simply preservation; and arguably the narrative set before us in this room serves to illustrate the power and wealth of our mighty European ancestors, rather than merely presenting an objective view of life at the time. 

The shiny gold signs used to display information around the space immediately suggest a focus on luxury and riches. There is a strong sense that the curators have chosen to tell the story of the elite, upper classes, as a sign labelled ‘Cityscape’ mentions how cities were “dominated by handsome buildings...express[ing] the social and political life of the community”. There is mention of how “beyond the city walls, the wealthy built villas in emulation of the the classical rural retreat” (gallery signage, V&A), but there is nothing- written or visually- to suggest how the rest of society lived. The room contains well basins from the courtyards of private palaces, and sculptures that were sent abroad as diplomatic gifts, but there is a complete absence of everyday, functional objects.  It is as if the curators have ignored, or deemed unworthy, the need to represent the life of the rest of society. By selecting only the finest of objects to display, the curators have arguably detached the individual pieces in the collection from their original contexts in history, to create a vision of history that only shows the exquisite and luxurious.  

As Carol Duncan has argued, ‘installation design has increasingly sought to isolate objects’ (Duncan, 1995, p.17). Here, the pieces are not only removed and isolated from the context of the whole society that they once existed within; they are also isolated from their original physical context. It is quite odd to see the ends of a staircase from the Palazzo Gondi in Florence fixed to a wall in the room alongside a doorway from France. Although they may both be beautiful objects to look at, they were never designed  to be hung on a wall together. Duncan argues that the ‘creation of [a] collection depends on the destruction of something else’ (Duncan, 1995, p.17), and it makes you wonder how the pieces would have looked and functioned in their former settings, before they were removed and their original purpose was destroyed. However, if it wasn’t for works being collected together in galleries like this, would we ever get the chance to be exposed to such things? Curators will inevitably always be selective about the stories they tell in an exhibition space, as they are influenced by their own personal agendas and beliefs. But if we as individuals notice gaps in the narrative then surely it is a good thing - forcing us to become more inquisitive, to question what we see and work out for ourselves what the story truly is, of the objects we are being presented with in a museum. 

References

Books:
Duncan, C. (1995) Civilising Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums. London: Routledge. 

Gallery Space:
Medieval and Renaissance Europe: 1350-1600 London: Victoria and Albert Museum. Visited 22/8/13

Electronic Sources:
Keenan, T No Ends in Sight in Matthew, S (2012) Aide-Mémoire. The New York Inquiry [Internet] Chap.2 Available at http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/aide-memoire/ [Accessed 23/09/13]