Graphics Rotation - Day 2 - The Welcome Collection Museum Visit

This visit was to the Wellcome Collection Museum to look at a specific section called "An idiosyncratic A to Z of the human condition" which is about people's experiences and concerns through out life and how we determine ourselves and our place in this world.

I found this visit to be a very interesting visit and a real eye opener as it exposes you to some truths about the way we think and feel about certain things and I felt that I could relate to a lot of it.

'From Acts of Faith to Zoonoses, Wellcome Collection presents a unique and idiosyncratic A to Z of the human condition, mediated through strange and wonderful objects drawn from Henry Wellcome’s extraordinary collection and the holdings of the museum.'

'Visitors will find objects that tell us about the fleeting and ungraspable stuff of life, from a multitude of perspectives and eras. From glass eyes and Inuit snow goggles (R for Resourcefulness) to an exquisite 14th century Persian horoscope (B for Birthdays), tattooed human skin and a Maori face cast (S for Skin Art) to Scott’s Antarctic medicine chest (J for Journeys) and phrenological heads (O for Obsolete Knowledge), the exhibition offers an impressionistic and suggestive alphabet of human experience.'

In the gallery each letter comes with an suggestive invitation and provocation to activity, both within and outside the exhibition. They ask visitors to share their cityscapes via instagram and twitter and display them opposite a manuscript of the Nuremberg Chronicle, opened at an illustrated view of the medieval urban landscape (U for Urban Living). They prompt and post acts of kindness, across from the dystopian Eden of The Garden of Earthly Delights, painted after Bosch (D for Delight). The illustrator will sketch out visitors’ accidents and near misses in the spirit of displayed ex-voto paintings to the saints (A for Acts of Faith) and fears can be left behind in the gallery next to the 17th century etching of De Monstris and a Nicobar Island figure used to ward off evil spirits (F for Fears).

Ranging across medical artefacts, sculptures, paintings, photography, manuscripts, audio-visual and ethnographic material, each exhibit in the show tells a personal story that contributes to a general history of how we make sense of ourselves and our place in the world; how we have used and understood our bodies, in both sickness and health. It is hoped these traces of other lives will inspire visitors to share some of their own.Danielle Olsen, curator, says: “"Rather than attempt to define the human condition, this A-Z gives an imperfect and impressionistic presentation. As meaning-seeking and empathetic creatures, I hope visitors will enjoy the opportunities it offers to pause for thought, to wonder and to share experiences. Although the exhibition doesn't reveal the meaning of life, it grapples with many of its questions and offers glimpses of how others have done so before."