One
of the many exciting things I did this year (and some of last year) was work as
a researcher and assistant curator with Dr Andrew Jamieson on the Mummymania
exhibition at the Ian Potter Museum of Art which runs from September 29 2015 to April 17 2016.
My involvement
was officially under the auspices of the University's Cultural Collections Projects Program,
although I already knew Andrew who was my Honours supervisor during 2008 and
2009. Andrew and I started talking about the exhibition in late 2014. Initially
we were going to do an exhibition on Egyptomania, which is the topic that I had
done my Honours thesis on. I spent several months researching museum
collections in Australia and contacting private collectors, including radio broadcaster
Phillip Adams and ex-Prime Minister Paul Keating, to try and source objects. In
the end, it turned out that there was simply not enough material available in
Australia to go with the Egyptomania theme, and it was not possible to borrow
from overseas institutions due to budget and time constraints.
So, we
re-thought the theme and decided on Mummymania as we knew that through the
Potter's existing collection and Andrew's contacts that we would be able to get
enough mummy-themed material to fill out an exhibition. I also sourced a
mummified head and hand and accompanying CT scans from the Harry Brooks Allen Museum of Anatomy and
Pathology at the University of Melbourne.
I researched
both Egyptian mummies and the reception of the mummy in history and came up
with four general themes: the mummy in regard to afterlife beliefs in ancient
Egypt; the history of mummy unwrapping in the West which also links to the
medical use of, and investigation into, mummies; and the reception of the mummy
in popular culture. I then researched individual topics and wrote up text
panels on Ancient Egypt, Afterlife Beliefs, Mummification, Mummy Unwrapping,
Biomedical Research, the Ethics of Displaying Human Remains, and the Mummy as
Hollywood Horror character. These information panels are displayed on the walls
of the exhibition gallery. I also wrote the extended labels in the display
cases, and the Introduction to the exhibition.
This was a lot
of work, so why did I take time out of my already overdue PhD thesis on Tree
Worship in the Late Bronze Age Aegean and East Mediterranean to do this and
what did I get out of it? Well, years ago when Andrew had supervised my Honours
thesis on the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and their use and misuse of
ancient Egyptian religion, we had vaguely discussed doing an Egyptian-themed
exhibition. (Andrew's last Egyptian-themed exhibition was ten years ago). I
have had an interest in the display of Egyptian antiquities in museums since my
Honours thesis and I just decided (in 2014) to apply to do a project with
Andrew through the Cultural Collections Projects Program. At that time Andrew
did not have any specific project listed, but he contacted me and asked if I'd
be interested in guest curating a show at The Potter, which of course I was.
The outcomes
for me so far include a stack of research material for future use, some popular
articles, and radio interviews. I maintain an interest in ancient Egypt and the
reception of Egyptian religion and visual style from the Roman period to today.
I have a contract for a book chapter on this topic scheduled for publication in
2017, and a journal article in the works. Researching Egyptian mummies
therefore functioned as background for these writing projects. I also wrote an
article on the exhibition for The Conversation and this was
re-printed in the University of Melbourne newspaper, Pursuit. The same day the Conversation
article came out I was contacted by ABC radio and did a live interview for ABC
Radio's RN Afternoons program, and ABC Radio
Hobart's Drive program.
There are
certainly more things I could do in regards to this exhibition but right now I
simply MUST finish and submit my PhD thesis!!!
Meanwhile,
Mummymania is on until April 17th 2016, so go and see it!
