Staging Magic: The Story Behind the Illusion
Disappointing exhibition at Senate House looking at magic from the 16th to the 20th century.
I say
disappointing because the description of the show was much more exciting than
the way it was delivered. The objects, given it was the library which had
organised it, were very book and paper based. The items were displayed in
rather dull display cases made slightly more exciting with red draped curtains
at the top. The books were shown brief descriptions but with much more
information in a handout. It was often hard to match the object to the leaflet
as items weren’t numbers. The large section descriptions were not always next
to the cabinet they referred to.
There were
remarkable things including the earliest book on sleight of hand magic, a book
on “Tricks for the Trenches and Wards” from the First World War, a handbill for
Houdini and catalogues of magic tricks.
The most
interesting section was on Harry Price, who had collected these items and
investigated alleged psychical phenomena. I was fascinated in the hoaxes which
he uncovered.
Closes 15 June
2019
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