Dr. Stephanie Pearson
  • Home
  • Projects
    • museums.love
    • Uncertainty and Debate
    • Mithras Model & Audio
    • Weltverbesserer Interview
  • CV
    • Employment
    • Education
    • Museum Experience
    • Professional Training
    • Publications
    • Awards & Grants
    • Teaching
    • Invited Lectures
    • Workshops & Chaired Sessions
    • Conference Papers
    • Professional Engagement
    • Excavation
  • Exhibition Reviews
    • Anna Dorothea Therbusch
    • Making Ancient Art Contemporary
    • Cleopatra
    • Pompeii and Herculaneum
  • Tours
  • Ideas on Display (blog)

Fashion Professions Word Cloud - Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg

7/12/2018

Comments

 
Picture
At the show Luxury in Silk (Luxus in Seide) in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, the subject of yesterday's post as well, this wall caught my eye. Clearly the arrangement of words is based on the word clouds now used on websites to visualize the most frequent search terms and clicks. But here the cloud serves to show the plethora of jobs in the 18th century that had to do with creating clothing, shoes, and jewelry ("Mode-Metiers im 18. Jahrhundert"). It's interesting to see such an aesthetic transition from an online space to a physical one.
Comments

Salon and Black Box - Painting and Photography at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg

7/11/2018

Comments

 
Picture
The second stunning exhibition I got to see recently at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg concerns painting and the birth of photography. Light and Canvas. Photography and Painting in the 19th Century does a wonderful job of presenting a complex subject: how did the invention of photography change painting, and how did the long tradition of painting influence early photography? The display underscores the dual protagonists of the story: the paintings are hung on vaguely kohlrabi-green walls, while the photographs inhabit black-walled chambers separated off from the main gallery space. The walls framing the entrance to the chambers are reflective silver overlain with black images, recalling early silver prints (visible above left). This is a genius conception for several reasons:
  1. It makes the duality of painting/photography immediately visually perceptible, even unconsciously.
  2. The black-walled chambers recall the process of creating photographs in a dark room.
  3. Because the photographs are usually smaller than the paintings, the intimate chamber space fits them much better than a large gallery space would. It encourages you to get up close to the sometimes minuscule photos. (Imagine the photographs simply hanging on a wall next to the much larger paintings: both genres would look out of place!)
  4. This intimate way of viewing the photos, especially the early portraits, imitates the way some of them at least were seen in their heyday—as tiny precious objects.
​
Overall I was hugely impressed by the effective presentation of such a complex subject and such a challenge in terms of display. You're in for a treat if you get a chance to go; it's open through September 9, 2018.
Picture
Comments

Luxury in Silk and Perfume - Germanisches nationalmuseum Nürnberg

7/11/2018

Comments

 
Picture
Over the weekend I got to visit two beautiful exhibitions in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg. The one about painting and the birth of photography will be the subject of a future post; today it's all about silk dresses! The show Luxury in Silk (Luxus in Seide, through Jan. 6) centers on a newly acquired silk dress from the 18th century. It is displayed in a chamber of its own in the center of the square exhibition room, with the "supporting actors" surrounding it: brooches and other period jewelry, old books and caricatures documenting fashion trends, and several pieces of clothing and shoes in unfinished form.
My favorite aspect of the show was the innovative decision to pipe a light fragrance into the display area around the silk dress.  It's a wonderful multisensory experience! (At right, a detail photo of the righthand wall shown above.) Subtle enough that you might not notice it at first, the perfume emanates through a small panel with a label above it. This "Flora grand poudre" scent was specially commissioned from a Parisian parfumeur who based her creation on the perfumes of the 18th century—a combination of lillies and other flowers, sandalwood, and musk. Aptly named, it smells like a delectable cosmetic powder in a precious gold-and-abalone toilette box. Not usually one for powdery scents, I was enraptured all the same; how can we bring smell into visual exhibitions more often?
Picture
Comments
    Ideas on Display
    A humble space to reflect on concepts of museum display as enacted across a wide range of subjects, countries, and approaches.

    Archives

    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Amsterdam
    Anthropology
    Archaeology
    Architecture
    Art
    Article
    Audio
    Award
    Behind The Scenes
    Berlin
    Boston
    Bulgaria
    California
    Chicago
    China
    Color
    Conservation
    Copenhagen
    Denmark
    Diagram
    Difficult Heritage
    Digital
    Display Case
    Dresden
    Egyptian
    Exhibition Outside Museum
    External Website
    Fashion
    Florida
    Frame
    France
    Germany
    Greek
    Halle
    Hamburg
    Hands On
    Hands-on
    Hanover
    Illinois
    Interactive
    Islamic
    Italy
    Kids
    Lighting
    London
    Los Angeles
    Map
    Marketing
    Marrakech
    Minnesota
    Missouri
    Morocco
    Movement
    Munich
    Nature
    Netherlands
    New York
    North Carolina
    Nuremberg
    Outdoor
    Painting
    Paris
    Pennsylvania
    Photography
    Roman
    Rome
    Shelving
    Signage
    Space
    Spain
    Switzerland
    Texas
    Text
    Turkey
    UK
    USA
    Video
    Women
    World War 2

    RSS Feed

Contact
Stephanie Pearson
steph [at] stephpearson.com