When objects lose their meaning

 

Alchemy and Metamorphosis – Neil Brownsword - photography V McGarvey cc-by https://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag/alchemy-and-metamorphosis-neil-brownsword/

Curation:  the selection and care of objects to be shown in a museum or to form part of a collection of art, an exhibition,

Alchemy: a power or process that changes or transforms something in a mysterious or impressive way; an inexplicable or mysterious transmuting

Metamorphosis:a major change in the appearance or character of someone or something 

Neil Brownsword's exhibition Alchemy and Metamorphosis at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery is part of the British Ceramics Biennial, it

" examines the innovations and ingenuity of North Staffordshire’s early ceramic industrialisation through a range of contemporary practices and perspectives. Curating a timeline of objects and archaeology from the Potteries Museum and other world-class regional and international collections...reveals the technologies, cultural influences and empiricism that led to the growth of a world-renowned centre of ceramic production...aims to renegotiate the contemporary relevance and unrealised creative potential of industrial craft practices that once fashioned material objects in particular ways."

                           ( https://www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/event/alchemy-and-metamorphosis) 

                            Sep 2021 - Jan 2022

I am not a curator or a historian, but as a PhD student that is researching intangible cultural heritage and valuing the embodied skills of industrial workers within Stoke-on-Trent's pottery industry, the words curation, alchemy and metamorphosis resonate with me. (It appears to me) that curators within museums are trying to wrestle with the responsibility of maintaining and providing cultural education with respect to their own collections. 

Collections can represent alchemy especially collections of objects like ceramics, and in particular industrial ceramics.  In 2015 Jan Bäcklund dedicated an essay to this in TOPOGRAPHIES OF THE OBSOLETE . Entitled "The Art of Fire: Ceramics and Alchemy", he discusses the ceramicist as philosopher, scientist and artist. It could be argued the alchemy associated with museum collections  can distance the visitor. However, the curator expert can provide insights into the collection and can challenge the authorised narrative, so that the collection goes through a metamorphosis from stagnation to something that can be reinterpreted. The curator can open up collections, working with artists, and the community so that they become more meaningful. This requires skills and knowledge, and with industrial ceramics the ability to engage with those that represent the intangible, the embodied skills of the worker and the artist, so that living heritage becomes the triangulation of curator, object and skill.

With respect to North Staffordshire factory ceramics this expertise is based within the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery. A place that showcases incredible objects like Minton's Pierre the Peacock.

 

But also a place where you can take new journeys around familiar objects, as we saw in the exhibition Reinvention of the Flatback at the BCB in 2019.

The Original Flatback photograph V McGarvey cc-by

The reinvention of the flatback - photo V McGarvey cc-by

Exhibitions like this requires both the skills of the artist to reimagine and the skills of curator who can identify the appropriate historical objects.   

Recently there has been much understandable concern and discussion about the proposed cuts to expert curatorial staff at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, in Stoke-on-Trent City Council's budget. I have a personal investment in this, as a researcher, who needs access to a well curated internationally renowned collection of North Staffordshire factory ceramics, and the expertise associated with this. The collection also represents the heritage of my City.  Stakeholders are not only researchers and academics, but also the people of Stoke-on-Trent who who deserve dedicated ceramics experts. These experts who look after these collections have developed an in-depth knowledge through their day-to-day close relationship with the objects that represent our industrial past and present, and the interactions with the people of the City, who can share their memories or are still actively working within the industry. Let's hope the City Council rethinks its decision and acknowledges that the City is worthy of this.

With working class cultural heritage , the dialogue between the expert who is passionate about the objects they curate and the worker who is passionate about the embodied skills that these objects represent, is far from over. Sometimes this discussion is at odds and other times in concert.  Roger  Kneebone in his book "Expert, Understanding the Path to Mastery" describes the three steps to becoming an expert, these are "apprentice" learning your skill, "journeyman"developing your 'voice', through taking on responsibility, and finally becoming a Master and passing on your skills. For Kneebone the real learning takes place when a person interacts, with, tools, objects and other experts, and through this the expert creates meaning. It could be argued this is not only the case with practical skills but also knowledge, such as a curator specialist. Not having dedicated specialists, and the associated mastery, the meaning of objects may no longer be challenged or sought, indeed there is a danger that these objects will lose their meaning, through generalising and collective amnesia.