morbid museums
I must apologise. Things have kind of fallen into the moat here at Mondo Towers (NB: this is just a clever turn of phrase. I don't actually have a moat. Or live in a tower). There are lots of things I've neglected to write about lately, possibly because I've been busy actually doing them, but I feel like I should at least mention some of them here. So this is the first of a few (long) catch-up posts. This one's mostly about MORBID DETH and body parts. (I'd like to promise that the others aren't going to be so gruesome - but I can't as at least one other upcoming post is about MORBID DETH too.)
A couple of weeks ago I finally visited the Wellcome Collection and the Hunterian Collection, which meant I could knock two more things off my uberlist (there are a lot of London museums on it this year). I only intended to pop into the Wellcome Collection briefly, especially as they were between exhibitions, but I ended up staying there quite a while. Of the two main rooms, I preferred the Medicine Man room, which is tucked into the back of the modern room, and not all that obvious to find. Filled with Henry Wellcome's original collection, it's a rather eccentric compendium of items, and was full of a coachload of old ladies tittering at vintage sex aids and chastity belts. But how can you resist a place that gives you Napoleon's toothbrush, the biggest snuff box EVER, running phalluses, spooky masks and ice cream diets? Also, they are very photo-friendly which is something I approve of in a museum, even if I didn't take many good photos.
The Hunterian, on the other hand, is not at all photo-friendly (which I don't really understand given that John Hunter started the collection from a desire to enhance knowledge and understanding, and allowing people to take photos would surely do that), but I was there for All Stitched Up, an evening event where quite a few others were taking photos, so I took advantage of them wielding their cameras to take a few photos of my own.
The event was partially organised by lovely Lauren (who has a birthday today, happy birthday!), as part of the Museums At Night festival, and there were several stitchy workshops taking place, from traditional crafty things like knitting, weaving, spinning, and sewing cards, to the less expected (but entirely appropriate, given the venue) suturing workshop, which was very popular. I didn't have a go, but I watched Lauren and it looked a lot more tricky than it ever does on telly. You can't sew with your fingers, but have to hold the needle with tongs, so it's fiddly and you need to have flexible wrists. I have loads of respect for anyone who can suture without leaving any scars.
Here's Lauren's review of the event, and here's one from someone who tried all the different workshops. I only signed up for one, and made a sewn collage card, which I didn't finish because it wasn't very good; it was full of holes where I'd poked the needle through the card in the wrong place and really wasn't as neat as I'd have liked. I did enjoy making it, though, and it's something I would definitely do again. (It's not a leaf, it's a moth that looks like a leaf.)
I must confess that I was a bit disappointed by the museum itself, though, because I didn't know it had been refurbished and I was expecting something more old-fashioned and spooky. Instead, I found that the jars upon jars of pickled body-parts just became gross and monotonous after looking at the umpteenth cabinet filled with them.
It was a lot more fun when Gary showed up and we got some alcohol before going 'round the museum again. I liked seeing Charles Byrne's skeleton, and it was fun seeing all the knitters sitting amongst the skulls and jars - they made me think of les tricoteuses.
There is a really interesting little exhibition that's well worth a look (it's on until August). Curious: the Craft of Microscopy features photographs of a set of microscope slides that were found by chance inside a vintage cigar box bought in a junk shop. There are multiple photos of each slide, taken under different microscopes from throughout medical history. It's fascinating to see how different the same slides looked under different microscopes, and I realised that up until then it had never occurred to me quite how wildly variable the results could be. It really brought home how much of science technology is seen as "the most accurate thing ever" at the time of its use, but almost always gets replaced by something even more accurate at some point.
As ever, photos are on Flickr.