My questioning abilities are, as always, not up to scratch!

[sandyosullivan]

Sorry, I did a poor job of asking my key question in the last post. What I was really asking was whether you think your OWN culture is represented in museums. I think I confused it by giving examples of the relatively small idiot museum visitor who would make inane comments on OTHER peoples representations

Comments

[sandyosullivan]

I think the things that matter are really interesting... I guess when people aren't represented so well or the tropes aren't easily available they become a bit more important. I'd love to know what you'd make of the Cornish cultural spaces in Cornwall-land. I think place is enormously interesting, it's been recast as most important to Indigenous peoples, but that's wrong... it's important to everyone. Of course. It's why the Museum of London can be so effortless (not to suggest that their work is without effort) in creating meaning and drawing those relationships for it's visitors. The Irish in Aus exhibition wasn't that appealing to me - it's the one that ran recently at the NMA. It was okay, but it felt like stories I'd heard dozens of times, and as someone who is pretty Irish ethnically myself, I found it a bit unsatisfying. I wonder, though, what you would make of the Glasgow Stories gallery at Kelvingrove Museum and I'd ask you if you could make your way there the next time your work takes you to Glasgow (if it ever does

[angel_b33]

I've been thinking about this all day, but my thoughts havent really shaped into an answer of your actual question. I hope that's ok...
My thoughts at the moment are along the lines of:
when I go to musea, i'm usually struck by the way indigenoius or indeed 'other' peoples are often portrayed..it comes across a bit uncivilised and a bit of a patronising white middle class 'oh look at the natives, we must civilise them. haha, what fools they were using this object to cut x thing'.
I think I'd like to see more of the impact of colonialism, colonisation and imperialism on indiginous populations. The uglier side of it, which I dont think is reflected much. Maybe nodded at from time to time. Also...for example in the British Museum, there's not really anything to say 'by the way, we stole all this when we were out colonialising the world' and that what we're seeing are the spoils of war/looted goods.

Did that go some way towards looking like it might answer the question?

[sandyosullivan]

Yeah, I think it's a huge and ridiculously complex question that I'm asking... I don't know how I'd (or how I will) answer it. So true on everything. In fact where commentary on colonisation or transgressions it is deployed in the way that you talk about (gently at the National Museum of the American Indian, less gently at the Mashentucket Pequot, and downright violently at the Museum of Slavery in Liverpool), the reactions are really extreme and lots of people who see themselves as representing the perpetrators, seem to be really uncomfortable... and do people go to places that they feel uncomfy? Or do they go back there? Are they nicing it up for folks

[stargazer1960]

I guess when I identify myself it is as a woman first. I very often feel that the "feminine" is represented in most museums as a token. In the history museums in Washington DC, whether it was art or science, they always had that token female in the corner. Here's Susan B. Anthony to pacify you, or Mary Cassatt.

When I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland this summer, they were promoting their big "Women in R & R" exhibit. It didn't have much depth and scope, although the book they put together to go with it was very complete.

[sandyosullivan]

I so hear you. I had a really interesting conversation with the curator of the War Museum in Edinburgh. He was saying that a really big issue is that there are only token moments to talk about women through history in terms of war, and that it ends up being remarkable rather than ordinary that is represented. I think this is so often true. The funny thing for me was that when he told me this, I had been to at least ten of these war museums and hadn't even thought about women. It was amazing how willing I was to see our absence. He was also saying (as I was just responding before) that women in some cultural spaces - and obviously he was talking about Scotland - don't have representations that act as tropes for museum visitors... so he was saying the kilt, bagpipes, and other tropes of identity are often masculine or cast as masculine. So intersting.

[theholyinnocent]

I don't think my answer here is really helpful either, but....Ethnically, I'm a mutt (German/French/Scots-Irish) and never seriously thought about the issues of representation in a museum or a similar cultural setting. Where I grew up, there is a very strong cultural awareness of the German immigrants ("Pennsylvania Dutch") and their contributions/influences on a local level. So if anything I felt part of my ethnic identity was well (over-?) represented. There are a LOT of little Pennsylvania Dutch themed museums (including folk art) scattered throughout the state.

Interestingly, though, my grandfather was a railroad worker and was very proud of a Railroad Museum that had opened up in the area. I recall going there once when I was a sullen teenger...wish I'd paid more attention!