Skin...

Image: Wellcome Collection

10 June-26 September 2010, Wellcome Collection

This exhibition invites you to re-evaluate the largest and probably most overlooked human organ. We will consider the changing importance of skin, from anatomical thought in the 16th century through to contemporary artistic exploration.

‘Skin’ takes a philosophical approach, beginning by looking at the skin as a frontier between the inside and the outside of the body. Early anatomists saw it as having little value and sought to flay it to reveal the workings of the body beneath.

The exhibition then moves to look at the skin as a living document: with tattoos, scars, wrinkles or various pathologies, our skin tells a story of our life so far. Finally, the skin is considered as a sensory organ of touch and as a delicate threshold between the public and private self.

Through shivers, sweats, blushes, wrinkles and scars, our skin provides extraordinary, visible documentation of our life. Don’t miss this extraordinary exhibition where we will consider our existence within our constantly changing skin.

Bodies, bodies and more bodies...

Two upcoming conferences on ‘the body’…

The Body on Display from Renaissance to Enlightenment, Durham University, 6-7 July 2010, http://www.bodyondisplay.org.uk/

Wrapping and Unwrapping the Body: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 20-21 May 2010,
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/silva/archaeology/events/conference/wrapping10/

Results of Avebury consultation are announced...

Image: Odinist Press Service

After consideration of evidence and extensive consultation, English Heritage have decided that the prehistoric human remains in the Alexander Keiller Museum, Avebury, should be kept in the museum for the benefit of public access and understanding.

These Neolithic human remains were excavated in the Avebury area by Alexander Keiller between 1929 and 1935. In 2006, Paul Davies of the Council of British Druid Orders requested their reburial. English Heritage and the National Trust followed the recently-published DCMS process in considering this request, and went out to public consultation in 2009 on a draft report which set out the evidence and different options.

English Heritage and the National Trust have now published a report on the results of this consultation, and a second report on the results of a public opinion survey. Our summary report concludes that the request should be refused for four main reasons:

The benefit to future understanding likely to result from not reburying the remains far outweighs the harm likely to result from not reburying them;

It does not meet the criteria set out by the DCMS for considering such requests;

Not reburying the remains is the more reversible option;

The public generally support the retention of prehistoric human remains in museums, and their inclusion in museum displays to increase understanding.

David Thackray, Head of Archaeology, National Trust

Sebastian Payne , Chief Scientist, English Heritage

See here for further details and here for an informative and enlightening discussion about the Pagan perspective…

Death on display...

Image: ABC News

Interesting news story on the BBC website about the iconic plaster casts of Pompeii which are the subject of a new exhibition and raising all sorts of questions about ‘dark tourism’ and the notion of the ‘real thing’…

Re-wrapping the Anonymous Man...