The British Museum - Living and Dying Exhibition

Our group was taken around the exhibition by Dr. Clare Rose. The Living and Dying exhibition is based around how different cultures fight to maintain their well being and their health. 

This replica (1902) parka would have been owned by an Igloolic Shaman, who are men and woman who had the ability to communicate with animals, personified forces of disease or the weather. Shamans are important because they hold the power that ensures animals continue to give themselves to the hunters. Without the Shaman communities are open to disease and starvation. 

Gut parkers are usually made out of the intestines of sea mammals such as sea lions and seals, they were used because they were waterproof, warm and light, the Shamans wore them during their rituals because of their powerful connections with the animals. The craftsmanship in the gut parkas is amazing, everything about them is fascinating such as their great usefulness to the opaqueness of the material which is beautiful in its own right.

Cradle to Grave by Pharmacopoeia.

Cradle to Grave was created by the textile designer Susie Freeman, the video artist David Critchley and Dr. Liz Lee, a GP. The concept tells the medical stories of a female and a male. The two lengths of fabric each hold over 14000 drugs which is the average that each person in Britain is prescribed in their life time. Looking at both of the lengths of tablets and reading about what they were both taking them for made me feel really quite emotional looking at someones whole life in such a form. This was my favourite piece from the exhibition because I found the feeling of personal connection and relation to the people, there were even pictures of them as they grew up and old around the outside of the pill incrusted fabric.

Eagle and Camera Coffins.

The Ga people of Ghana are well known for introducing a new tradition of beautifully carved and figurative coffins. The story says that in 1951 two brothers whom were carpenters created a coffin for their grandmother, shaped like an aeroplane because she had always dreamed of flying but had never had the chance to, after the news spread people wanted them for their families and relatives too and therefore their business was done. To me, these coffins give no air of mourning or sadness but instead give a sense that death isn't to be feared or thought of in a negative light.

Silk wall-hanging - Patna, Bihar, northeast India 2002

The wall hanging was made by a group of woman from a village in India, it expresses their social and personal concerns. This piece covers the different way's AIDS is transmitted through blood transfusions, infected needles, unprotected sex and from mother to child, it also shows women distributing condoms as a means of prevention.