Thursday, July 13

Discussing the ROM's "Into the Heart of Africa" exhibition with Dan Rahimi was a great cautionary tale of how things can go spectacularly wrong when you do not seek community or public engagement when developing stories for a museum to tell. It's rather jarring to recognize that even with the curator's intentions of using the exhibit to subvert the racist narrative perpetuated by colonial discourse, their execution in no way matched their intention, but rather perpetuated it.

I think what struck me most about Dan Rahimi's talk was that the curators were so oblivious to the ways in which their work would be interpreted, especially in regards to the image of the British officer brutally stabbing a Zulu warrior. I would have expected  that the sheer brutality of the image would lead to more in depth  consideration of whether displaying such violence is warranted or necessary.. If the reason for the use of the image was for sheer shock value, then it's use is not only inappropriate, it should be deemed unethical.

One ray of light from the talk is the ultimate museum policy change that developed from this painful exhibit. The exhibit was an obvious mistake, but it  is heartening to see that the institution was willingness to grow from this mistake in a way that more institutions need. Too few museums actively seek out community participation in the development of content, As I see it, only benefits can come from consultation with the public it serves, even if the process is difficult.

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