Cathy's Art Diary

Thin exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at the Kola Nut and its global significance and properties. The commentary said this was an “evolving   display” but other than an interactive table at the centre, which I didn’t have time to explore, I’m not sure what they meant by that. There were some interesting facts around about how the fruit had spread across the world via the slave trade and colonialism, as well as how it was used in products for its caffeine properties, however a lot of the display was in the form of av presentations and therefore time consuming to absorb. Closed 2 February 2025

Thought provoking exhibition at the Wellcome Collection examining the impact of work on health. The show cleverly interwove historical and contemporary ideas and organised objects under three themes of work on plantations, in the street and in the home, picked as they are sites of work that is undervalued by society. I would like to have seen it broadened out to factories, service industries and offices. I spent a long time watching a video on how chemical factories have ground up on old plantations sites along the Mississippi surrounding the towns which were based around the original slave houses. There was also had a frightening section likening prison work to slavery with the astonishing statistic from 2013 that there were more black men in jail in America than would have been slaves in the past. The street section covered people who sell on the street, people who clean urban areas and prostitution. The space was dominated by an installation from Lindsey Mendick inspired by t...

Moving installation at the Wellcome Collection by Jason Wilsher-Mills. The work examined his time from the age of 11-16 when he was paralysed due to an autoimmune condition. He revisits childhood memories of the time and how he now feels this made him into an artist. The story was clearly told around the walls, matching it with facts on popular culture of the time, and with dioramas of family stories and memories. The centre of the room was dominated by a model of him in bed reflecting how he felt at the time. He likened the germs to toy soldiers. I was particularly struck that his time in hospital in 1980 was exactly when I was going to university so the memories resonated with me in a very different way. Closes 12 January 2025    

Thoughtful exhibition at the Wellcome Collection examining how ideals of beauty have existed in every age and every society. The show was in three sections and the first looked at ideals and how these vary over time. It also looked at the effect of these ideals on how we think about our faces and bodies. It was good to see a lot of early material as well as contemporary. Next it looked at the industry of beauty. I was interested to see how many things we think of as beauty aids such as corsets began as medical inventions. Seeing ancient beauty accessories such as this Egyptian slab with holes for cosmetics is always very moving. I loved an installation recreating five “Renaissance gods” from a 1562 text. Finally there was three commissions from contemporary artists to question and initiate new conversations. I liked a video by David McAlmont which used Lely’s Windsor Beauties to look at current black, queer lives. Closed 28 April 2024 Reviews Guardian Telegraph Evening...

Fascinating exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at the history of milk and our relationship with it. The points were made clearly with well-chosen objects, films and ephemera. It followed loose themes such as the history of the West’s use of milk, perceived health benefits, production and scientific motherhood. I had never realised the link between milk and race from the west’s promotion of it as they colonised despite the fact many races can’t digest it to Pro-Trump supporters purposefully drinking milk at rallies as a sign of their whiteness. I felt at times the analogy was stretched a bit too far but it certainly got me thinking. I also realised I was exactly the right age to have been influenced by a lot of health promotions. I found the section on free school milk particularly nostalgic. I remember the way it froze in winter and went off in summer. There was a good section on the promotion of scientific advice to women around breast feeding and the politics of t...

Amusing but informative exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at how we play and what it is important. The show looked at the role of play in learning and discusses whether is for everyone and not just children. The nature/nurture section looked at how we use play to learn and how educators have harnessed this. There was a big display on the Kindergarten movement started by Friedrich Fröbel in 1839. He devised 20 ‘gifts’ objects to develop stages of development and most of them were illustrated here. It also looked at the role of play in post-War Britain to help children overcome traumas and Constant Nieuwehuy’s theory that mechanised labour would free is from work and adults could lead a nomadic life of play. Bring it on! A section on toys examined how society changes are reflected in children’s toys and o how they can be used to influence society. There was a sweet section on playground chants and how they adapt over time which were recorded by Iona and Peter Opie...

Worthy exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at the response of two contemporary artists to chronic illness. The show looked at how illness disrupts how we think of our bodies but I found that because it just looked at two experiences it felt more like you were looking at the artists’ therapy than considering the issue in more general terms. The photographer Jo Spence documented her breast cancer diagnosis. I did like her project “Beyond the Family Album” which looked at the things we miss out of photo albums as we usually only record the happy and successful moments in life. In hers she adds illness, divorce and tension. Oreet Ashery offered an impenetrable series of videos looking at dying in the virtual world. Each one seemed to be over 30 minutes long and in the short time I gave one of them I really didn’t understand what I was looking at. I wasn’t sure how the tent structure and teddy bear bean bags fit in except that you needed some comfort to watch them...

Interesting exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at how architecture can affect and benefit health. The show focused on housing and health buildings and in each case looked at the history of each type of building and at new developments in the field to design with an eye to improving physical and mental health. I would have liked to see other types of buildings covered such as offices and factories. I liked the history sections best. It was great to see the Booth maps of 19th century housing which identified the link between health and poor housing shown with pictures of the slums described in Oliver Twist and the preface of the first edition where Dickens reacted to the idea that he had made up the slum. In the health section I loved the wonderful model of an ideal 19th century hospital which was like a big dolls house. Also the watercolours by Frank Collins of an overflow smallpox hospital. The more modern section on housing used the Grenfell fire to examine...

Fascinating exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at the winner of a call for proposals demonstrating how architecture could respond to global health issues. The winner was by architects Roger Stirk Harbour and Partners   and engineers BuroHappold and Chapman BDSP created for the independent charity Doctors of the World and was a flexible but robust clinic which is easy to transport and adaptable to different climates.   It is constructed by slotting together pre-cut pieces which are then covered by a waterproof sheet if needed. The sides can also be insulated in colder climates. The show included the prototypes and explained how the final design developed and explained the different features which could be added if needed. Loved the idea that they could encourage phone charging facilities which are rare in some areas and attract people to the clinics. There was also a section on items designed by 14-19 year olds which could be used in the clinic such as c...

Fascinating exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at Indian medicine from traditional techniques to the present day. The show was cleverly arranged taking different aspects of medicine such as surgery, anatomy and potions and introducing each with a quote from Paira Mall who was sent to the Indian subcontinent by Henry Wellcome to collect objects for this collection and to acquire local knowledge. The show was multilayers not only being about Indian medicine but also the art of collecting and the nature of colonialism. The star of the show was the Ayurvedic man himself, an 18th century Nepali painting of a man with a detailed text on the parts of the body and the related humours of wind, bile and phlegm. It was show on its own in a booth with a reading of the text in the original language and translation.   I loved the early 19th century European influenced pictures called Company School pictures including one of an operation on a leg. Also a drawing of ...

Strange exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at how we think, feel and value animals. It wasn’t until the 18th century that we started to seek a scientific explanation of the animal world and there was a really good section on Linnaeus and his work to classify and name all the species and he was the first person to define humans as animals. It claimed that how he defined a hierarchy of species has influenced our thinking ever since. The middle room looked at how we display and look at animals. I must admit to being slightly freaked by the examples of taxidermy hidden round the display. There was a sweet fox asleep under a display case! There were good sections   on zoos and natural history museums, how they have changed and how their design has influenced our thinking. I was also very interested in cases on William Hornaday, a taxidermist for the Smithsonian who realised that in collecting some of the last bison for the museum he was contributing to them becom...

Fascinating exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at electricity, focusing on its generation, supply and consumption. It wasn’t till I started going round this exhibition that I remembered I used to work in the electricity industry, how could I have forgotten! Despite this I’d never thought about how the electricity industry developed and how the infrastructure like the National Grid was developed. The first section looked at early observations of natural electricity and how we started to generate it. I was very amused by an early experiment to pass a charge around a group of people with a wonderful picture of 180 of Louis XV’s guard trying the trick and then a wonderful film of 1950 scientists trying a similar thing with an electric eel. I loved the section on supply which included one of the first batteries but I most interested to see that the Grosvenor Gallery, known to me as holding Impressionist exhibitions, was one of the first buildings in the UK to us...

Fascinating exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at the history of the Bedlam asylum and the treatment of mental health. This show was a good mix of good historical displays and contemporary art installations to help illuminate some of the ideas. It looked at how in ancient times the asylum was a space, often a religious place where individuals could seek refuge. I was fascinated in the sections on the town of Geel in Flanders which became a place of pilgrimage, as it housed the shrine of St Dymphna, the patron saint of the ‘mentally distracted’ in medieval times. In modern times the town still offers a system of ‘family care’ where ‘Boarders’ live with families and are part of the town’s life. The sections on Bedlam itself were really well presented and much helped by the slide show put together by Rev Edward Geoffrey O’Donoghue, chaplain from 1892 to 1930, compiled to illustrate the regular lectures he gave as part of a programme of entertainments for staff and ...

Thought provoking exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at what consciousness is from a medical and a philosophical point of view. The show tackled this difficult topic by looking at a range of experiences on the edge of consciousness. The first looked at the difference between the body and the soul by investigating neuroscience. This included one man who pressed unexposed photo plates onto people’s foreheads to see if he could capture thought!   The section on sleep and awake included a creepy sculpture by Goshka Macuga called “Somnambulist” of a very realistic sleeping man in the middle of the floor. It also looked as mesmerism and how other generations have tried to explain dreams. The final section looked as disorders of consciousness either through brain injury or trauma. This includes the idea of false memories which was fascinating. Closes 16 October 2016 Reviews Guardian Evening Standard        

Fascinating exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at the history of forensic science. The exhibition was themed by the place where the evidence might be collected or used so there was the crime scene, the morgue, the laboratory, the search and the courtroom. I loved the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death made by Frances Glessner Lee, small 3D models of crime scenes still used to train police today. Also the plan of the area where Jack the Ripper’s 4th victim was found made by a city architect which included a sketch of the body in situ. The morgue section was grisly and I found it quite hard to look at the post mortem table but the early pathology books were fascinating. The laboratory sections looked at the development of mug shots and the use of fingerprints. The courtroom looked at how scientific evidence has been used in court but also looked at press coverage of court cases. The Medical Witness Act of 1836 allowed qualified medical witnesses to te...

Interesting but slightly disappointing exhibition at the Wellcome Collection looking at the history of the scientific study of sex. I say disappointing because I had really looked forward to it as the adverts had been great and I knew about the erotica collection at the Wellcome but the exhibition seemed to wander a bit and have two distinct halves which were not really joined together well. The first section, which might have made more sense if I’d gone in through the correct door (better directions please!) focused on the Wellcome Collection and was fascinating. It looked at first gender reassignment, early sex   aids, gay and lesbian life through the ages and much more. However it all felt a bit random. The second section looked at the history of the scientific study of sex starting with Freud and Stopes   and working through to current studies. It covered Kinsey, Masters and Johnson who were the study of a wonderful recent TV series and much more. It was ...

Unusual exhibition at the Wellcome Collection following the work of artists commission by them to work in health research facilities around the world. This was a mixed bag of work with some artists working with the communities they were in to produce the work and other just taking inspiration from the place. A fun idea was by Miriam Syowia Kyambin and James Muriuhu working in Kenya. They set up a photo studio made to look like    doctor’s office and filled it with props. They then asked local people to come and pose in it in white coats decorated in American fabric choosing the props they most feel influence research. During the run of the show on certain days there is a photographer present so you can join in and be part of the project. My favourite piece was a necklace of fossils by Kater Paterson who was based in Cambridge. She took her inspiration from DNA research and each bead in the necklace was fashioned form a fossil and they are threaded in an evolutiona...