It is a common refrain that the British Museum’s collections show history from the perspective of victors, of those whose civilisations or cultures have left the most prominent mark. With the exhibition I Object: Ian Hislop’s Search for Dissent, it is the opposite that has been sought.
Hislop, a writer, broadcaster and editor of Private Eye magazine, and his co-curator, Tom Hockenhull, the curator of modern money at the British Museum, have sought to present the stories of the underdog, the individuals determined to leave behind their own legacy. And, in a similar way, we wanted to produce a catalogue that deviated from what people have come to expect from a British Museum catalogue. It is, after all, a book about subversion.
One of our first challenges was to choose a cover image that conveyed the theme of the show without relying on a single object. Given the variety on display, both in terms of period – from the ancient Babylonians to the modern day – and their geographical origins – drawn from places such as the UK, China, Russia, Nigeria and Myanmar – it would have been difficult to sum up the book’s content with just one image.
The resulting graphic approach makes a bold statement – the typography is reminiscent of woodblock-printed protest posters and part of its appeal is in deciphering the arrangement of letters and reading the “hidden” message. It is, however, more readily identifiable than the word “sex” in a 1968 Seychelles banknote, or the number “45” concealed beneath the spout of an 18th-century teapot. (The latter was a clever reference to the radical Whig politician John Wilkes and the publication of edition No 45 of his newspaper, The North Briton, which contained an attack on King George III.) All of these objects appear in the show.
We were also keen to ensure Hislop’s voice was evident. His approach has been as an enthusiast and his contributions often provide light-hearted interjections on serious topics. We tried various design styles to separate his commentary, including placing reversed-out text on bands of black to draw on the idea of censored sections in official documents, but legibility suffered. In the end, we chose a simpler approach: Hislop’s observations have been placed in speech bubbles, a graphic device also employed in the exhibition.
Our aim was to offer an alternative view of history and to look at objects from a different perspective. We have shown how the motivations of the makers, and the cultures in which these pieces were produced, are as important as the objects.
Kathleen Bloomfield is the project editor at the British Museum, London. I Object: Ian Hislop’s Search for Dissent is on until 20 January 2019 . Dissent is the theme of the Museums Association Conference & Exhibition in Belfast on 8-10 November
Hislop, a writer, broadcaster and editor of Private Eye magazine, and his co-curator, Tom Hockenhull, the curator of modern money at the British Museum, have sought to present the stories of the underdog, the individuals determined to leave behind their own legacy. And, in a similar way, we wanted to produce a catalogue that deviated from what people have come to expect from a British Museum catalogue. It is, after all, a book about subversion.
One of our first challenges was to choose a cover image that conveyed the theme of the show without relying on a single object. Given the variety on display, both in terms of period – from the ancient Babylonians to the modern day – and their geographical origins – drawn from places such as the UK, China, Russia, Nigeria and Myanmar – it would have been difficult to sum up the book’s content with just one image.
The resulting graphic approach makes a bold statement – the typography is reminiscent of woodblock-printed protest posters and part of its appeal is in deciphering the arrangement of letters and reading the “hidden” message. It is, however, more readily identifiable than the word “sex” in a 1968 Seychelles banknote, or the number “45” concealed beneath the spout of an 18th-century teapot. (The latter was a clever reference to the radical Whig politician John Wilkes and the publication of edition No 45 of his newspaper, The North Briton, which contained an attack on King George III.) All of these objects appear in the show.
We were also keen to ensure Hislop’s voice was evident. His approach has been as an enthusiast and his contributions often provide light-hearted interjections on serious topics. We tried various design styles to separate his commentary, including placing reversed-out text on bands of black to draw on the idea of censored sections in official documents, but legibility suffered. In the end, we chose a simpler approach: Hislop’s observations have been placed in speech bubbles, a graphic device also employed in the exhibition.
Research for the book and exhibition resulted in collaborative work involving every curatorial department in the museum. We have also been able to give exposure to often-overlooked items in the collection, such as a Yemeni statue that has never been written about in detail because it was exposed as a fake after it came to the museum in the 1930s.
Several acquisitions are also discussed for the first time, such as a “pussyhat” worn at the Women’s March in Washington DC in January 2017 and a postage stamp rumoured to include a reference to the Tiananmen Square protests of June 1989.
Our aim was to offer an alternative view of history and to look at objects from a different perspective. We have shown how the motivations of the makers, and the cultures in which these pieces were produced, are as important as the objects.
Kathleen Bloomfield is the project editor at the British Museum, London. I Object: Ian Hislop’s Search for Dissent is on until 20 January 2019 . Dissent is the theme of the Museums Association Conference & Exhibition in Belfast on 8-10 November
By Ian Hislop and Tom Hockenhull; £25, Thames & Hudson in collaboration with the British Museum; ISBN 978-0-500-48041-0
