Wellcome Collection 14th of November 2023

Today we went on a group trip to the Wellcome Exhibition to look into art inspired by or from the past to influence what art could look like in the future. Because we are there to make something wearable for the body I was hyper critical of statues and singular art as I wanted to thoroughly investigate it to make it as useful as possible for this project. Before we had a talk with the curator of the exhibition called Danny I looked around the Being Human exhibit. I was entrance by everything they had on display. Much of the art had this organic lacy structure throughout it. If fact I would suggest a title change as much of the art seemed to just take place in human spaces, if I had to sum up the exhibition I would say 'Natural Power' as it details many examples of DNA art usage about what we could create in the future, exhibiting often hidden bodies such as people with Down syndrome being placed to the forefront of the exhibition or false limbs or powerful display. It took aspect of humanity and made them central to the exhibit allowing the power to be brought back to the subject and owners of the art.

We were then given a tour through the gallery and shown in further depth many pieces of work, one in particular I enjoyed was a piece commission by the AVM Curiosities and made by Tasha Marks: it was called '5138008' which is 8008135 or Boobies when spelt on a calculator upside down. The piece smelt of breast milk having being soaked in certain chemical and when quizzed about our opinion of the smell before knowing that it was many described the scent as floral, homely and familiar. a demonstration of the familiarity which caused regression.

Being Human is a permanent feature and edition of the Wellcome Gallery, however there are many other altering ones, The Cult of beauty is an exhibit I went back to the Wellcome Gallery to see so could spend more time analysing the work in places. I found that the cult of Beauty was brilliant yet a little repetitive. I proffered the work then they almost mocked the term beauty when showing hoarders, hermaphrodites and prison beauty contests rather than the typical meaning of showing old sculpture with the beauty standard of Ancient Egypt. By going back to the entire exhibition I was able to view the work through fresh eyes.

I was really pleased with the Wellcome Collection and my drawn responses and primary photo responses to the brief. I was awarded a small badge with Bram Stoker Dracula depicted on it!

Reframe the Past - Research

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