In this essay, I will explore how Archaeology has informed Art and how this in turn has helped the field of Archaeology. I will look at how Archaeology inspired ‘Wunderkammer’ (Cabinets of Curiosity), how they were an important part of the evolution of museums, and more recently how ‘Wunderkammer’ have influenced and inspired contemporary artists. I will look at the work of Mark Dion and show the influence of Archaeology and museum displays on his work and my own.
Wunderkammer was popular in the 14th – 16th centuries in Renaissance Italy and they were originally Cabinets filled with curios collected by the wealthy on travels to far-flung places. They were used by the upper classes to show how interesting and knowledgeable they were. They were symbols of status supposedly showing how adventurous and well-traveled the owner of the cabinet was. The wealthy used possessions to define their personalities.
Over time these cabinets were filled with curiosities gathered on journeys, many were bought at Italian markets rather than on an adventure to the place of origin of the object and stories were often fabricated about the collection of the object. The owner would add their own story to the object and the cabinet became what the owner wanted it to be. Due to a lack of understanding about the world around them, these fabricated stories would be believed and the object would become ‘real’. Many objects were labeled as mythical creatures and magical tools. The Narwhal tusks became unicorn horns, monkey torsos stitched to fishtails became mermaids and ordinary pebbles became witches' stones and if the story was there those things were believable because the guests knew no different.
In the article Curiosities and the origins of Collecting the author describes the Curiosity Cabinet perfectly
“in the spirit, the cabinets were not meant to be scientific – they were a piece of imagination in which those who could afford to do so constructed their own personal versions of the world” [1] Sotheby’s Inst of Art, Curiosities and the origin of Collecting, Anon
In time ‘Wunderkammer’ gave way to Wonder rooms or Studios. These rooms were not compartmentalized into certain subjects as they would be today they were whole rooms filled with wonders with no order or organization. These wonders included objects from the natural world, religious items, artwork, and exotic items from faraway places, which were all mixed in together. The distinction was very fluid between natural and art objects. The contents of Studiolos were usually presented to the viewer with questions about the transience of human life.
By the 18th century ‘Wunderkammer’ and ‘Studiolos’ gave rise to museums and Art galleries as during the ‘Enlightenment’ collectors across Europe started to give the public access to their collections. The rise of scientific practices and disciplines also meant that collections needed to make sense in the world and could no longer just represent wealth and intelligence. The institutions inspired by these collections were the British Museum in 1759, followed by The Prado Museum, Madrid 1785, and the Louvre in 1795. Other institutions followed providing collections that were categorized, labeled, and authenticated. The division between nature and culture is very clear and distinct in those institutions today. In turn, these museums informed the practice of archaeology as archaeologists began to study the items found in greater detail with more care so that the correct information could be noted alongside the objects.
Contemporary artists are now being inspired by Curiosity cabinets and museum displays and categorization. Mark Dion, a contemporary artist, is one such artist, he uses cabinets, drawers, and display cabinets to categorize many things from items picked up on specific journeys to items from a particular category collected as he goes about his life. I really enjoy his work and would like to see some of his installations ‘in real life’ as I think they would be fascinating to study and they would feed my insatiable curiosity for ‘things’. I especially like the installation entitled ‘Travels of William Bartram – Reconsidered. This installation is in response to Dion retracing the travels of William Bartram and it features many curiosity cabinets and investigates the visual representation of knowledge and the natural sciences and is concerned with the historical methods of representing and organizing the world. The installation represents Dion’s travels through the southern United States following the journey that William Bartram took in the 18th Century. Dion collected, scavenged, and acquired many objects which he posted back to Bartram’s Gardens to be curated into many different kinds of cabinets according to his own categorization. Items include natural specimens, roadside vegetation, bottle caps, and a collection of toy alligators. I love that in what looks like a very serious installation that there are items that are less serious like the toy alligators or the cocktail umbrellas.
My own work is also inspired by the ‘Wunderkammer’ and museum display. My ‘Wunnerpress’ which is Doric for ‘wonder cabinet’ combines my love of collecting unusual things and my childhood love of museum labels. As a child, I loved the labels in museums as they gave, on a very little piece of paper, all the information I required to make sense of the object that I was looking at. I love the type of written labels and they hold a real familiarity for me so I tried to emulate that feeling in my cabinet. For my ‘Wunnerpress,’ I collected together 50 objects from around my house, from drawers and handbags to little dishes of ‘things’ to become my collection for display in my cabinet. Each piece has a story and a memory attached for me, some also hold memories for my children. I labeled each object and in true ‘wunderkammer’ tradition some of the labels are true to the object others are nonsense and the rest are just my imagination at play. Strangely as I worked with my objects, those that I had made up stories for have become that thing in my mind, the fairy coat really does belong to a fairy and the Kelpie Kings porridge spoon is just that.
In conclusion, Archaeology has informed art by being the influence of the original ‘Wunderkammer’ which encouraged the collecting and display of unusual and interesting items. This in turn led to Studiolos, rooms filled with pieces and stories waiting to be told by the owner. Studiolos and curiosity cabinets laid the foundations for the big Art institutes and museums around the world which brought these items to the masses by making art accessible to the public. And now curiosity cabinets and museums are informing the work of artists like Mark Dion and myself.
Archaeology informs art theory goes full circle. Archaeology informs art, which informs archaeology, which informs art which will in the future inform archaeology and the circle will continue.