History & the Country House

Thanks Chris (our Salford friend!) for posting the provocative piece on history and the Country House...(or at least the CH as presented by the National Trust). It seems legitimate, of course, to point out the rather 'Whiggish' history that institutions such as the NT present to us (or at least those that go to NT properties...there's a clue there maybe?)...but it's not always the case that the Country House sanitizes history...and coincidentally, me and BAs were on a visit to Harewood House this week....

...and which in 2007 made some attempt to address what could be considered to be a provocative and problematic part of it's own history by including, albeit quite small, displays that directed attention to the links between the establishment of the House and the Slave Trade...(this was part of a wider project on the bicentenary of the Abolition of Slavery in 1807...in Britain anyway)......The Slavery Exhibit display cases are still part of the Display at Harewood...although they seem to be delicately underplayed...but perhaps that's inevitable?..part of the veracity of 'History' is that it is required to be 'coherent' (at least that's one strand of thought in philosophy of history anyway!)....

But that said, I do think that it's useful to disrupt the still waters of historical understanding sometimes.....but maybe the Country House (and National Trust) is too much of an ocean to be touched by 'other' narratives....(there is, in fact, a drip-drip effect of change in the interpretation of Country Houses, with the opening of 'below-stairs' displays...notice there's no mention of 'white slavery' there though!...I'm quite obviously being deliberately provocative here!).........................................
....Anyway, we enjoyed our visit to Harewood....but it did seem to be FULL of ex-Leeds University graduates!...(Thanks Anna....shown here introducing the BAs to the House in the Steward's Room....and thanks to Ruby for an excellent tour (apart from her rather disparaging remarks about the great Alfred Stevens, who apparently 'ruined' a perfectly good R.Adam ceiling in the house......'History' - ultimately it's all about 'fashion and taste')....
.....

Mark

Who owns our history?

George Monbiot, in Comment and Debate (The Guardian 24.2.09) questions the role of the National Trust in 'editing' the history they present to the public. The Trust aims to act as guardian and trustee for the nation, as proprietor (owner) of many examples of architecture and social history in the country. As a fund raiser, the Trust aims to attract visitors, to increase membership, and to act as conservator of our heritage.

Monbiot questions the sanitisation of history by the Trust, giving examples where the life of the actual users of the buildings are not mentioned; where perhaps not to scare visitors away with too much realism, history is selective. Admitting that "we can never hope to fully understand the past, but we can recognise that history is open to widely different interpretations... The Trust is ready to explore unfamiliar and uncomfortable history in new ways."

As a member of the National Trust, I have visited many sites and buildings. Never have I been exposed to "uncomfortable history" or seen displays or material which truly explores the true nature of life for the inhabitants over the years.

Has the time come, perhaps, to admit the past to the present, and freely discuss how lives were lived, how we view and evaluate them, or are we not ready for such a bold step?

Is part of the 'contract' between the Trust and its members/visitors that they shall not be upset or provoked on their way to the cafe or shop?

For our international friends...

Sex, Death & Ethnography

In relation to the collection management practices we were talking about today, I started to think about the kinds of organisations that disrupt what we think of as 'best practice' and would never qualify for MLA accreditation (nor would they want to). It's particularly interesting to trace problematic objects such as human remains and ethnographic objects of dubious origin when they are presented outside what we might consider a 'legitimate' museum context. I'm thinking particularly of the Ripley's Believe it or Not! franchise, which holds objects like these lovely shrunken heads and trophy skulls, alongside various reproductions of weirdness. Similarly, the objects displayed in the British Museum might be directly equivalent to those displayed at somewhere like the Musee de l'erotisme in Paris, though the meaning is fundamentally different. A perfect excuse to add some cheap titillation to this blog...

'Questions of Collecting' talks resume...and a request for docents!

Good to see such a lively blog for the students in Art Gallery and Museum Studies! Of course, I've been impressed with the engagement of the students and staff on this course for some time.

Our jointly-organised series of talks 'Questions of Collecting' shows this well. After a hiatus over the winter holidays, we're picking up where we left off: Helen Rees Leahy (Director of the Centre for Museology at the University of Manchester) will be giving her talk '"All the Finest": Furnishing the Frick, 1914-15' at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery tomorrow evening, from 6pm. Next month, we welcome our very own Mark Westgarth to the stage! He'll be giving a talk entitled '"A contest between two pairs of eyes": dealers and collectors' on 24 March, from 6pm. The Gallery will remain open until 8pm after the talks, so it's also a great opportunity to see the collection and exhibition of new work by Trevor Bell after hours. I hope to see many of you tomorrow at the Gallery.

Finally, I'd like to drop in a request to any students wishing to get involved in the Gallery as student docents. This would involve researching and delivering short (1/2 hour) gallery talks to our visitors on a Wednesday lunch hour. We currently offer free lunchtime talks on the current exhibition, most Wednesdays from 1-1:30, but we'd like to offer talks on works in the collection as well. If you'd be interested in developing your research and public speaking skills by delivering one of these talks, please feel free to email me directly to express your interest: l.bloom@leeds.ac.uk.

Art Exhibitions & Sociological Space

Hi All,

we were very lucky to have Dr Malgorzata Lisiewicz, from the Art History Department at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznan, over this week on an Erasmus Scholar exchange. Malgorzata gave a really fascinating talk on Wednesday on the role that the The Grosvenor Gallery played in evolving Class identities in London in the late 19th century...this was delivered as part of our 'Perspectives on the Art Market' series of lectures...keep an eye out...there's more to come....and she also gave a very thought-provoking seminar paper for the MAs on Thursday, outlining some of the work she had undertaken as a curator for contemporary art exhibitions, and the relationships between her 'academic, theoretical' work and her 'practice' as curator...although, as Malgorzata quite rightly suggested, this is never an 'either/or' dichotomy......
I thought that the seminar was absolutely riveting, as Malgorzata brilliantly highlighted how sociologically 'thick', (and how gendered) the actual viewing 'spaces' of the exhibitions were...this was an implicit 'visitor study' of the highest order....and what was nice, (and we didn't actually plan it, honest!), was that our earlier discussion, in the first part of the seminar (on Cultural Led Urban Regeneration), was also focused on how we can think about space 'sociologically'....so all in all a satisfying session?..........

...what did you think?

Mark

Temple Newsam House Conservation Workshops

Hello All,
It's the Undergrads turn!.........Me and the BAs popped along to Temple Newsam House, in Leeds, for a Conservation workshop, with Jenny Hack (the paintings conservator...thanks Jenny!).....these are always interesting sessions I think....and help us to appreciate the
complex relationships between interpretation of historical objects and the conservation/preservation of them.......

The students, some of them shown here posing (under sufference) on a v.cold morning (well done for getting there at 9.15am).....were very enthusiastic...(at least they appeared to be?)...
and have some presentations to do for next week based on their experiences, when they get back to the University.....

.............We'll be visiting TN again in a few weeks...
Mark

Creating Art in Nature - Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2009

Hi everyone!

The ongoing discussion (sometimes controversies) over the relationship between urban regeneration and museum/gallery development reminds me of an interesting project in Japan that might shed light on other possibilites relating to the issue. Instead of turning the cityscape into a museological space, this time it is the rural area which is transformed into heterotopia.

I am here to introduce/advertise a volunteer program for the fantastic Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2009 (http://www.echigo-tsumari.jp/english/). Echigo Tsumari (I will simply call it ' ET ' from now on) is situated in the Niigata province of Japan and is a rural area scattered with rice fields, dotted with hills with a population of less than 75,000 residents.

Once an important area of local rice cultivation, the region is seriously affected by rural-urban migration since the 1970s. With the rapid loss of young people to the megacities and the declining birth rate, schools and local business continue to close down, rice field and rural cottages abandoned and the average age of the population keeps increasing over the past few years. (In fact it is a trend that the entire nation will have to face as Japan is probably one of the few Asian countries facing a serious aging population crisis).

As a result, starting from the year 2000, a group of art experts in Japan initiated the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial project which aimed at revitalizing the region through inviting artists from all over the world to collaborate with local people in creating site-specific artworks. Or in director Kitagawa's word, to 'dig out the value that can be found in the region, raise that value, show it to the world, and by doing so contribute to regional revitalization through the medium of art'.

In the previous three triennials (2000, 2003 and 2006), the organisation committee sucessfully invited famous artists like James Turrell, Christian Boltanski, Christian Lapie, Leandro Erlich, Cai Guo-qiang, Yayoi Kusama, Richard Wilson etc. to install site-specific artworks in the landscape of ET which celebrate local culture, as well as question the relationship between human and nature in our post-industrial world. This year, another 300 artists with different nationalities will gather in Echigo Tsumari in June to celebrate its fourth triennial and the committee of ET is desperately seeking English-speaking people to help with the event.

Volunteer works include assisting artists to install or gather material for their artworks, holding guided tour for tourists as well as helping general logistic management (if you have a driving licence). Knowing Japanese language is not a must as the local helpers will accompany you with your work. You will be provided free accomodation and food subsidy, with a lot of coupons for taking outdoor hotwater bath (onsen) overlooking magnificent natural scenery. The only thing that is not included is the air ticket cost (which I know is not cheap), but I am sure that the benefit of joining this triennial is immense and it will definitely change your way in looking at art and nature (the artwork that you help to create will stand there for many many years!)

If you are interested, please contact me through gchanart@gmail.com. The official website of the event is http://www.echigo-tsumari.jp/english/. A detailed online catalogue of previous artworks can be found at http://www.echigo-tsumari.jp/artworks/photo_en.php , may be you will find some artists that you are familiar with before!

Here are some other marvelous artworks that you can see in ET:


Takamasa Kuniyasu - Matsudai Dragon Pagoda

Ilya & Emilia Kabakov - The Rice Field
.

Akiko Utsumi - For Lots of Lost Windows

Christian Boltanski ＋Jean Kalman - The Last Class

Leandro Erlich - Niigata House

Museums and Visitors: Membership issues

Brooklyn Museum has launched a variety of membership schemes, to encourage and recognise the value non-traditional membership visitors being to the Museum. Initially identifying Members as "lifelong learners...and donors, who support the museum" the families and other media visitors (eg. bloggers) who are also enthusiastic, do not join.

Whilst the cost issue was raised, the article discusses the benefits for both the institution, and the new visitor, with a new structure of membership categories. The use of social networks, blogs etc is discussed, and the influence of those media on the communication and perceived value for money of the $20 membership cost.

Given the historic patronage of the arts and culture in the UK, and the move towards HLF funded 'free' entry, should (or could) the National or local museums adopt such a scheme? The sense of belonging, possibly having an input/feedback, or receiving extra value for the membership is worth considering. Or is it? 

http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2009/02/1stfans-audience-specific-membership.html

Pavilion..and Cultural Led Urban Regeneration

Hello,

me and the MAs all trundled, carefully, in the blizzard of snow yesterday (sorry...just picked the wrong day I suppose!) down the hill from Leeds Uni to Pavilion, the contemporay art space in 'Holbeck Urban Village' (now that's got to be an oxymoron?)....


We had a chat with Gill Howard (ex Leeds MA!) about the role that Pavilion plays as catalyst for 'emerging' artists...it was really interesting I thought, to hear about the relationships between Government (quango) funding (Arts Council primarily), and the 'idea' of Culture...and especially revealing, I thought, given the location of Pavilion in a space of urban regeneration...... Such projects have been driven, to a large extent, by 'expert' reports such as Lord Rogers' 'Towards an Urban Renaissance' in the late '90s....unfortunately, we ran out of time (and it was too cold and snowy) to take a walk around and see the extent to which society was being 'healed' through the organic development of past-and-present architectural form......but we're going to discuss these interesting urban spaces next week (hopefully).. Anyway, what we found interesting (maybe it was just me?) was how 'difficult' these spaces are to get to, but maybe that's because they have been partly 'forgotten' in the memory of the city?...it's strange that they seem to be part of the city, and yet not part of the city....ah...that brings us back to Heterotopias!
Mark

When are human remains not human remains?

In anticipation of our discussions about the ethics of displaying human remains, I thought it might be interesting to bring these two unfortunate chaps to your attention. I came across these figures when I was doing some research into anatomical teaching aids at the Royal Academy and I think their use and display also has ethical implications. As casts of executed, flayed criminals from the 18th century, can they be considered alongside what we might consider 'innocent' remains? Are they remains at all, or objects baring the trace of a body? Do they have historical value? Or have they become a bit side-show and macabre in a similar vein (if you'll excuse the pun) to Gunther von Hagens' plastinated figures? I think there are continuities to be drawn with other problematic material that our institutions have inherited, such as taxidemy and medical specimens.

There's some fascinating information about these two figures on the RA website, searching for 'Smugglerius'. I can't seem to post the specific links.

(Here's the link Rebecca:

http://83.138.168.41/ixbin/hixclient.exe?submit-button=search&search-form=object/object_month_july2007.html&_IXSESSION_=suKMxRyi9wP

Kindest regards..Mark)

Bourriaud as curator of Tate Britain Triennial

Jonathan Jones has written an interesting piece about Altermodern (defined as post-post-modernism) at Tate Britain, a triennial of British art curated by Bourriaud. It will be interesting to see how far the exhibition is able to avoid the illustration of theory, as many of the selected artists cite Relational Aesthetics as a fundamental influence upon the nature of their practice. The concept of heterogeneity might dominate both theory and practice (if they are to be considered separate) to such an extent that it appears homogeneous. There is also the idea of the star guest curator, which is also discussed in this month's Museums Journal.

Here's the link for the article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/feb/03/tate-britain-triennial

Palladio exhibition

Hi All,
I read a review of the Palladio exhibition in the Times recently, which I found interesting and I thought that some people might like to read it. The criticism is pretty relentless but seems to encapsulate the problems facing a curator designing an architectural exhibition.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/architecture_and_design/article5599289.ece
Enjoy
Jennifer

Are snow days heterotopian?

I wonder what Foucault would make of snow days. If the usual conditions of production, consumption and social interaction are disrupted, does it create a space of otherness? I think the sight of grown men on sledges may provide us with the answer.

The BM....The Universal Survey Museum...?

Hello All,


I thought I'd start the Blog rolling (do Blogs 'roll'.....unfurl maybe?)...anyway, I thought I'd start the Blog by directing attention to what's been happening at the British Museum lately...........you may have noticed the report in the Sunday Times last week (25th Jan)............
Neil MacGregor, Director of the BM, has suggested that the BM has refound its purpose by returning to its roots....MacGregor has (rather neatly, one could argue) pointed to the founding (Enlightenment) principles of the BM in 1753 as a rationale for a renewed contemporary purpose...(I thought this was quite a poetic rationale actually - the museum as a kind of legitimizing presence of it's own historical authority...but then I think MacGregor is aware of such a marketing poesis?)...............(here's the link to the article)

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article5566699.ece
Anyway... MacGregor's notion is that the collections at the BM are the 'private collection of every citizen in the world' and although he dosen't actually mention it, the implicit suggestion is that the BM is a 'Universal Survey Museum'. On the surface of it the idea of the BM as a kind of library, (a comparative collection, as MacGregor suggests), seems quite plausible....(almost a bourgeois comfort?)....but surely there must also be a space at the BM to articulate the contested histories of the objects on display....or does the 'idea' of the BM loom too large to effect such a project?




Mark