March 25, 2024 THOMPSON, blog.

Anthropology Art Politics

The Put-Upon And Marginalised Finally Get A Word In

March 25, 2024 81 Comments

Time, I think, to better ourselves. Come, let us peek at the culture pages of the Guardian:

the unicorn is the subject of a major exhibition opening next weekend in Perth.

That’s Perth, Scotland. Lest there be confusion.

The first UK exhibition to investigate the cultural history of this elusive, magical, and well-loved creature will be the centrepiece of the opening celebrations at the new Perth Museum, after a £27m transformation of the former City Hall,

Bear with me. I’m setting the scene. Stoking your anticipation.

“We’re exploring how people conceptualise an animal that they’ve never seen,” says the lead curator, JP Reid,

White horse. Big horn.

“The unicorn was a symbol of innocence and chastity, and, in time, the story develops that the only way you can catch one is by baiting it with a virgin woman,” says Reid. He pauses. “There’s obviously a lot of innuendo going on.”

Again, big horn.

at least half of the exhibition is dedicated to present-day incarnations. A mass display of crowd-sourced items – including My Little Ponies, novelty hats, rainbow-hued stuffed toys, and clothing – reflects the creature’s ubiquity across pop and kid culture.

Ah, tat.

Brace yourselves for a full-on face-blast of culture:

Such wonders you’ll behold. Memories to treasure forever.

Because the above is “a modern symbol of the LGBTQI+ community.” And so, while claiming to give exposure to the supposedly marginalised and unseen, the virtuous by default, the curators are expecting visitors to be enthralled by objects of mass-produced banality that are, by their own admission, utterly ubiquitous.

But wait. There’s more.

the final section of the exhibition features six newly commissioned pieces exploring the ongoing challenges faced by the queer community globally, including transgender inclusion, conversion practices and institutional homophobia, transforming blank, life-size horse heads around the theme of “unicorn hunting in 2023.”

One of the above. Presumably the most photogenic.

“Queer stories are so seldom told in museums,” says Jennie Grady, the community co-production officer who has worked in partnership with local LGBTQ+ groups on the exhibition.

I’m just going to leave this here, I think. Consider it an illustration of what can be done. A cultural benchmark for our times.

Regarding the aforementioned seldomness, I briefly scanned recent listings and found that the museums and galleries busily “queering” their content include the British Museum (“Desire, Love, Identity: Exploring LGBTQ Histories”), the Victoria and Albert Museum (“A Queer History of Art”), Tate Britain, Tate Kids, Queer Britain (“A riot of voices, objects, and images from the worlds of activism, art, culture, and social history”), Brighton Museum, the London Art Fair, the Glasgow Women’s Library, the Museum of Transology, the Museum of London, National Museums Liverpool, National Museums Scotland, and the National Portrait Gallery.

So seldom. So terribly seldom.

Other vigorously “queered” content can be found at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art; the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam; and the Wellcome Collection, London, which among other things offers a “queer life-drawing workshop… focussing on queer bodies.” I have, due to space concerns – and the fear that readers may lose the will to live – omitted many more.

Despite which, Ashleigh Hibbins, the head of audiences at the Perth Museum, where unicorns await, tells us,

“This is a £27m project and an opportunity to tell stories in a different way – we’ve been telling the pale, male and stale stories in museums from time immemorial and for institutions to stay relevant we need to represent the people around us. It’s not just a moral consideration but a practical one.”

Ah yes, those unheard voices. The dear downtrodden.

Via Julia.

Reading time: 3 min

Written by: David