The British Museum Part One

This weekend's trip to a museum with Jenn was to the British Museum. It is ridiculous. Just when you think that you’ve seen enough really important, famous objects you find something else. We made no attempt to visit all of the galleries, yet I still have enough to talk about in multiple blog posts.

There were two things I had to see at the museum- the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles. The Rosetta Stone is not the most exciting object ever (it is a stone after all) but given that I've always been fascinated by Ancient Egyptian culture since I was a kid it was a *must* visit (more on that in my next post). I knew what it looked like from photos and the copy on display at the Royal Ontario Museum, but I always wondered what the back looks like. I have no photo (everyone and their brother was having their picture taken around it) but I can tell you the back looks, well, like a rough stone.

I wanted to see the Elgin Marbles not because of what they look like, but because as a group they are one of the most disputed museum artifacts on the planet.

Greece has built a gallery for them in an Athens museum that basically acts as a giant ‘we’re waiting’ picket sign to Britain. Their current gallery at the British Museum contains not only a display board explaining what the Marbles are, but also a pamphlet that explains the controversy, with web links to both the Greek Government’s and British Museum’s official views on the subject. Repeated over and over is how they can be viewed free of charge in their current home and all the research that the museum has published about them over the years. The pamphlet also provides a list of other museums that have sculptures from the Parthenon in their collection, which I felt was a bit cheeky. They are currently housed in an airy, purpose-built space that looks like this.

Did I mention there were a lot of people visiting the museum? Getting a photo without someone walking in front of you was quite difficult. The gallery contains a series of friezes that wrap around the space. I was particularly taken with this cow (what is with me and cows in museums? Very random).

But there are also many soldiers on horse-back.

At either end are sculptures from the Parthenon that had the most luscious drapery. It is very easy to forget that you are looking at stone and not fabric.

My take on the dispute? England acquired them legally and with the intention of preserving them, which no one in the Ottoman Empire (which Greece was a part of at the time) was prepared to do at that time. Yes, Greece was a conquered country but by the early 1800’s it had been ruled by the Ottomans for 350 years. The move by the Greek Government a few years ago to create a space for the Marbles in a Greek museum was one step too far and killed any hope for diplomatic negotiations to continue. I hope they remain in the British Museum permanently.

Week Three

I spent most of this week up a scaffold or crawling around on my knees, which can only mean this week and next will be spent participating in the palace's Annual State Bed Clean and Audit. I currently have no photos of this work, but will have some soon, so look forward to that in a blog post in the near future. For now, here is a photo from the King’s wing, which is where I was working this week.

Hampton Court is home to a number of throne canopies and beds, which are all very large and often attached to the wall. They have to be inspected to make sure that they aren't rapidly deteriorating, being eaten by pests, or other things that require attention. These inspections help the staff decide what artifacts need to be treated in the upcoming year or two. We also perform routine surface cleaning (also known as vacuuming) and document any changes that has occurred to the object. We also check and clean the furniture in the rooms of whatever wing we are working in (but they tend to be very boring- which is always a good sign for a conservator).

I spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday working on the throne canopy in King William III's Presence Chamber, which is the second public room in his suite. The first day we need a full four-level scaffold so we could clean the top of the canopy (which was filthy) and the finials. Tuesday was spent on a three-level scaffold inside the canopy. The highlight of Wednesday was being part of a line on conservators sewing fine netting over the fringe at the bottom of the backcloth, essentially creating a bag to catch all of the bits of it that keep falling off (which featured the sound of textile conservators in a panic- quick, silent sewing). The Presence Chamber is extremely cold normally and the weather has been positively frigid this week. It was even (very briefly) snowing at Hampton Court this week.  

We moved to the Georgian Route Thursday to work on a bed, but I spent it examining all of the parts of the bed that had to be removed (mattress, quilt, etc) in a much larger (and much warmer) room. Friday was a bizarre day and I spent it mainly doing non-bed clean things, such as hold up a pair of King George V's trousers as we figured out what size of mannequin he requires for exhibition. When the real form shows up, I get to prep him for exhibit but that won't be for a few weeks. I can’t wait to start that work!

London By Night- Part One

London is very pretty at night. When the older buildings are lit up they take on a totally different look. I'm sure I will have a few posts like this in the future.

Oxford St. a few days after I arrived here. The Christmas lights were still up at that point.

St. Paul's Cathedral, which I didn't go in but spent quite awhile looking at the exterior of it.

This building is somewhere between Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus tube stations (we went for a bit of a wander, I'm not sure which road we were on).

And the pub on Peterborough Road, near my apartment.

Tate Modern

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of spending the day with my friend Jenn (B), who I went to school with at Fleming College (which means she is also a museum person). We went to visit the Tate Modern, although for the first hour or so we sat on a bench in a gallery and talked... a lot. Eventually, we got up and started looking at the art.

I would like to explain that while there are plenty of ‘no photo’ signs at the museum, no one seems to care that they are there. Tourists take photos. The staff in the galleries that are there to make sure that you don’t touch anything do not seem interested in you when you take photos. So I took minimal photos. Of particular interest was this installation by Michelangelo Pistoletto, entitled ‘Venus of the Rags’.

The title seems fairly self-explanatory.

We were particularly drawn to the Andy Warhol room, mainly because of the wallpaper.

When faced with a choice of two rooms, one with plain walls and another with pink and yellow cow walls, the choice is fairly obvious.

My guidebook says that Tate Modern gets five times as many visitors as MOMA in New York, but I don’t think it’s a better museum. It doesn’t do a fantastic job of making modern art engaging. We also had some serious issues with their labels, which were placed all over the place. Some were to the left of the object, others to the right, some were above it, and others were below. Particularly for large installations, it was impossible to read the label while standing in front of the object. This isn’t an issue in an empty gallery, but when there are a lot of people in between the object and the label the problem is quite obvious.

My favourite piece was something that I couldn’t photo well, so I will tell you about it instead. In 1955, Robert Frank took an epic road trip across the States and took photos of... well, everything and everyone including cowboys, waitresses, diners, and some hot cars. He published some of the photos in a book called ‘The Americans’. The museum has the contact sheets of those photos on display and the array of photos made an interesting collage of images. The small size of each makes you really peer at them and see the image. I could have spent a long time looking at each one.

One of the best parts of the Tate Modern is outside of the museum. The view of the Millennium Bridge from the river entrance is a must-see.

What Guy Ritchie and Lamb Had To Do With My Day

For the last two days, Hampton Court Palace has been used to film scenes from 'Sherlock Holmes 2'. We were asked not to take photos while they were filming, but I managed to get this shot last week of the set in the gardens.

Preventive Conservation is responsible for monitoring all film sets at the palace, to make sure that nothing could potentially cause harm to the collection or the building itself. Since I was with them last week, I got to help supervise one of the sets being installed. And since I got to see the work that goes into prepping a film set, I was also allowed to watch the last bit of filming today.

The scene that I saw involved men shooting a gun and running away. I don't know anything about the plot and didn't even hear any dialogue, so I have no exciting secrets to tell anyone. But, I did get to see Jude Law briefly. I also got to stand about a meter away from Guy Ritchie during filming. He seems like a 'normal' person but very assertive- he knows what he wants from a scene (which one would assume is a good quality to have as a director). He also has good taste in clothes.

I did not get to see Robert Downey Jr., although various members of the conservation staff found ways to spy on him through out the day because they love him so much (yeah- I don't get it but each to their own).

As part of the set, a lamb spent the better part of the day roasting over the fire in the kitchens. Once the scene had wrapped, it was cut up and I got to take some home with me (it is delicious). It was a good way to end the afternoon. And yes, it was also a good learning experience, since historical sites are becoming more open to filming in their premises as a way to increase their profile and bring revenue in.

Week Two

I spent this week with the Preventive Conservation team who are responsible for the care of all of the items on display at Hampton Court. This means that they are responsible for everything from housekeeping to pest inspection to making sure that the barriers are in the right place so you can't touch any of the tapestries.

This week was very 'chatty' in that I spend a lot of time having things explained to me, sat in on meetings, or watching someone as they did something (while explaining to me what they are doing). On Friday one of the conservators was quite apologetic that we were doing some straight forward cleaning, but honestly it was nice to actually be doing something (it is also much warmer to be working in a cold palace than standing around talking).

The most exciting part of the week was when one of the senior conservators took me around the palace and explained some of the specific challenges they faced in those rooms. In Queen Mary's Closet, she went to adjust one of the blinds and the entire set of double roller blinds came crashing down! Fortunately it didn't hit us; unfortunately it put some significant gouges in the wood shutters.... so now I've seen how to fill out an incident report at the palace.

Whimsy

I went to the Museum of London on Sunday, mainly on the recommendation of one of the senior conservators at Hampton Court. Specifically, she told me I will love their mannequins Yes I know, that has to be one of the signs that you are a textile nerd.... but you are reading my blog so what do you expect? But before we get to that, I will talk about the rest of the museum.

I highly recommend the Museum of London because it uses inventive methods to make the experience exciting and interesting. And it has to, because it competes with some blockbuster museums in London, like the V&A and the British Museum. For example, the printing press has screens set up around it to make it look like it’s spitting out printed pages. They have replicas right next to the real garment so you can try it on and see it yourself (sorry- I promised this was the bit with no textiles, apparently I lie). Overall it does a good job of showing how the city has evolved through the ages and how material culture has changed with time. And it has some unique objects. As you wander around the roman gallery, you look out a window and find yourself looking at parts of the original London wall.

Okay, if you want to skip me gushing like a textile nerd, you should stop reading this post now. Otherwise...

The museum has a *SPECTACULAR* exhibit called the ‘Pleasure Garden’. It is in a secluded area and uses a video (projected on the walls) to compliment the display of costumes to show how urban parks flourished in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. The mannequins are whimsical and interesting and pretty and... well, just at look at this.

I covet that brown Spencer jacket on the mannequin on the right.

Most of the hats and masks (*masks*, sigh) were made by Philip Treacy, who makes some of the most high-fashion millinery on the planet. One hat was made by the late Alexander McQueen. This enhances the fantastic pieces from their collection that are on display. Such as this.

That ship hat is original, which makes it all the more breathtaking. There were also figures that had reproduction costumes on, so you could look at them up close and touch them if you wanted to. Or in this part, means that mannequins on either side of the display case could interact with each other.

I can’t express enough how much I love this exhibit...I went and looked at it twice.