We are all familiar with the temple model for the institution of the museum that has forever dictated to us what is acceptable. But where did this all start? It began with wealthy and influential people collecting miscellaneous objects of interest or curiosity, placing them all together in a room of their house to display to friends and influential guests. This practice became expanded to public viewing in places like the P.T Barnum museum which amplified the cabinet of curiosities to an establishment in and of its own.
The current exhibit at the Hite Gallery, The Arthur Byrd Cabinet of Curiosity resurrects this idea; featuring such components as a set of moustache cups, a barrel of human bones, a human hair ball, and the largest hair ball in the world from a bovine. For the average pedestrian accessing this show the vibes may be of a science center for adults. Pointing out obscure and unique subjects of curiosity. The placement of the long-form viewing panels are good in case the room fills - they are at an elevated height- but the text is somewhat verbose and I think that this length of the text could be a turn off for the casual viewer.
The video aspect is always nice, to rest the eyes from reading and allow the observer to listen to the story.However, it feels like this show should have been spread out over a number of different rooms, because you have the projector, projecting text onto one wall and at the same time you have the video on the other wall. and then you have the audio going, and encompassing this exhibition is a lack of linear tangibility to the exhibition. To view each work discursively it would seem important to give the pieces more room, or cut down on the different mediums of discourse to allow to give ample attention to each one.
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