{"id":744,"date":"2012-01-26T16:57:31","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T16:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp\/2012\/01\/pilgrimage_to_the_british_muse.html"},"modified":"2012-01-26T16:57:31","modified_gmt":"2012-01-26T16:57:31","slug":"pilgrimage_to_the_british_muse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/2012\/01\/pilgrimage_to_the_british_muse.html","title":{"rendered":"Pilgrimage to the British Museum? Don&#8217;t Bother."},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \"><span lang=\"EN-US\">Sydney Smirke&#8217;s (1797-1877) design for the Round Reading Room of the British Museum made it one of the architectural landmarks of the world. Readers&#8217; tickets have been held by Marx, Lenin (who used the name Jacob Richter on his library card), Bram Stoker (of &#8220;Dracula&#8221; notoriety) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle &#8211; and me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \"><span lang=\"EN-US\">Since the British Library split and moved away in 1973, the glorious space has been redundant. But it has recently been used as an exhibition space for:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoListParagraph\" style=\"border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: -18pt; \"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style=\"font-family: Symbol; \">\u00b7<span style=\"font: normal normal normal 7pt\/normal 'Times New Roman'; \">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><b><i>The First Emperor: China&#8217;s Terracotta Army&nbsp;<\/i><\/b>13 September 2007 &#8211; 6 April 2008<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\" style=\"margin-top: 0cm; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \"><b><i>Hadrian: Empire and Conflict&nbsp;<\/i><\/b>24 July- 27 October 2008<o:p><\/o:p><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \"><b><i>Shah &#8216;Abbas: The Remaking of Iran&nbsp;<\/i><\/b>19&nbsp;February &#8211;&nbsp;14 June<o:p><\/o:p><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \">&nbsp;<b><i>Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler&nbsp;<\/i><\/b>24 September 2009 -24 January 2010<o:p><\/o:p><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \"><b><i>Fra Angelico to Leonardo:&nbsp;Italian Renaissance Drawings<\/i><\/b><br \/>22 April &#8211; 25 July 2010<o:p><\/o:p><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \"><b><i>Journey through the afterlife:&nbsp;ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead&nbsp;<\/i><\/b>4 November 2010 &#8211; 6 March 2011<o:p><\/o:p><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"border-style: initial; border-color: initial; \"><b><i>Treasures of Heaven:&nbsp;saints, relics and devotion in medieval Europe&nbsp;<\/i><\/b>23 June &#8211; 9 October 2011<o:p><\/o:p><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 18pt; \"><span lang=\"EN-US\">And from the 26<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;January to 15<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;April, it is home to&nbsp;<b><i>Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam<\/i><\/b>.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 18pt; \"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"imgres.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/imgres.jpeg?resize=259%2C194\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" class=\"mt-image-none\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: 18pt; \">19th-C &nbsp;Egyptian <i>mahmal<\/i>, ceremonial palanquin, symbol of the sultan&#8217;s authority over the holy places (Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art)<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>\n<o:DocumentProperties>\n<o:Template>Normal.dotm<\/o:Template>\n<o:Revision>0<\/o:Revision>\n<o:TotalTime>0<\/o:TotalTime>\n<o:Pages>1<\/o:Pages>\n<o:Words>974<\/o:Words>\n<o:Characters>5553<\/o:Characters>\n<o:Company>Isishome Ltd<\/o:Company>\n<o:Lines>46<\/o:Lines>\n<o:Paragraphs>11<\/o:Paragraphs>\n<o:CharactersWithSpaces>6819<\/o:CharactersWithSpaces>\n<o:Version>12.0<\/o:Version>\n<\/o:DocumentProperties>\n<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>\n<o:AllowPNG\/>\n<\/o:OfficeDocumentSettings>\n<\/xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>\n<w:WordDocument>\n<w:Zoom>0<\/w:Zoom>\n<w:TrackMoves>false<\/w:TrackMoves>\n<w:TrackFormatting\/>\n<w:PunctuationKerning\/>\n<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt<\/w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>\n<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt<\/w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>\n<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0<\/w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>\n<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0<\/w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>\n<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas\/>\n<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false<\/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>\n<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false<\/w:IgnoreMixedContent>\n<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false<\/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>\n<w:Compatibility>\n<w:BreakWrappedTables\/>\n<w:DontGrowAutofit\/>\n<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables\/>\n<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx\/>\n<w:UseFELayout\/>\n<\/w:Compatibility>\n<\/w:WordDocument>\n<\/xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>\n<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState=\"false\" LatentStyleCount=\"276\">\n<\/w:LatentStyles>\n<\/xml><![endif]--><br \/>\n<!--[if gte mso 10]>\n\n\n<style>\n\/* Style Definitions *\/\ntable.MsoNormalTable\n{mso-style-name:\"Table Normal\";\nmso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;\nmso-tstyle-colband-size:0;\nmso-style-noshow:yes;\nmso-style-parent:\"\";\nmso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;\nmso-para-margin:0cm;\nmso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;\nmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\nfont-size:12.0pt;\nfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-ansi-language:EN-US;\nmso-fareast-language:JA;}\n<\/style>\n\n\n<![endif]--><br \/>\n<!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:18.0pt\">I have seen,<br \/>\nwondered at, and reviewed &#8211; enthusiastically &#8211; all the previous items in this<br \/>\nlist, with the slight exception of the relics show last year. (I felt a little<br \/>\nskeptical about the organisers&#8217; silence about the magical aspects of these religious<br \/>\nobjects, which were logically on a par with those venerated or used by, say, followers<br \/>\nof voodoo. Curators have no difficulty using the word &#8220;superstition&#8221; if the<br \/>\nmakers and worshippers of the objects are black. Doesn&#8217;t this also apply to<br \/>\nwhite Christians who believe in the efficacy of splinters of the True Cross and<br \/>\nthe virtue of ancient fragments of bone?)&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent:18.0pt\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">So there are<br \/>\nsome of my cards on the table already: I am made uneasy by the uncritical<br \/>\npresentation of religious belief. In &#8220;Treasures of Heaven&#8221; I was able to see through<br \/>\nto the beauty and craftsmanship of most of the many objects on display, without<br \/>\nbeing made nervous by the nature what was ostensibly inside some of them. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"> But<br \/>\nthat attitude is not possible to assume with the current BM show, which is<br \/>\nshoddy, even tacky in its installation (with some information plaques looking<br \/>\nlike signage in a pound-, or dime-store), unbeautiful, unscholarly, and in some<br \/>\nways no better than propaganda for the current Saudi r\u00e9gime. In fact, I am a<br \/>\nlittle shocked that the BM agreed to mount this exhibition and lend its name<br \/>\nand reputation to what is a pretty creepy enterprise. (I except from these<br \/>\nstrictures the book of the show, same title, \u00a325, with excellent essays by Hugh<br \/>\nKennedy and Robert Irwin.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"> It is<br \/>\na wholesale endorsement of the Muslim pilgrimage, the Hadjj, one of the five<br \/>\npillars of Islam.&nbsp; Unlike the book<br \/>\nthat accompanies the show (but is not a catalogue of it), it doesn&#8217;t seem to<br \/>\ncontain a word of criticism about any aspect of the Hadjj. Its sole concession<br \/>\nto the physical dangers of having so many people in such a small piece of Saudi<br \/>\nreal estate at the same time is to mention the troubles of 1865, when Indian<br \/>\npilgrims seem to have transmitted cholera to Europe and the US, resulting in<br \/>\nThomas Cook becoming agents for the Hadjj for a year in 1866-7. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"> Overcrowding<br \/>\nis a trivial issue. But overlooking the Sunni-Shi&#8217;a schism is serious. I came<br \/>\naway from this show thinking that Islamic sectarianism is (and almost always<br \/>\nhas been) set aside completely by all pilgrims making the Hadjj. Indeed, the<br \/>\nshow&#8217;s curator, Venetia Porter, told me explicitly that this is so &#8211; that both<br \/>\nShi&#8217;a and Sunni pilgrims perform the same rituals, and that their differences<br \/>\nare suspended when making the Hadjj. Of course (you learn from the book, which<br \/>\nshe edited) this isn&#8217;t quite true, as there have been times in history when the<br \/>\nrulers of one of the sects (or political factions, indeed) banned members of others<br \/>\nfrom making the Hadjj; and you only have to look at the internet to learn that<br \/>\nsuch a ban is rumoured (untruly) every year. The exhibition glosses over the<br \/>\ndifferences within Islam, and it does this on purpose, as it explicitly<br \/>\nendorses, and is endorsed by, arms of the Saudi government and tourist<br \/>\nauthorities<a name=\"_GoBack\"><\/a>. The Saudis are thanked frequently and<br \/>\ncopiously in parts of the exhibition, not only for their support for the show,<br \/>\nbut for their contribution to making the Hadjj safer and less uncomfortable for<br \/>\nparticipants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"> Worse,<br \/>\nsparse though the exhibits are, the information supplied is not good or<br \/>\nplentiful. You have to peer closely at some of the wall captions to learn the<br \/>\ndate of the object on which it comments. Perhaps this is because a good deal of<br \/>\nwhat is displayed is recent or even new. There is not much &#8220;art&#8221; included<br \/>\nanyway &#8211; most of it illuminated manuscript pages, a few ceramic tiles, some<br \/>\nporcelain and several textiles &#8211; and not all of the first rank. Even the<br \/>\nexhibition design is poor. Given that one physical setting of the Hajj is an<br \/>\narena with the Ka&#8217;ba &#8211; a black monolithic-looking building supposedly rebuilt<br \/>\nby Abraham and Ishmael &#8211; which pilgrims circle seven times, you would have<br \/>\nthought the circular Reading Room was the ideal venue for this show. Though<br \/>\nthere is half a black rectangular-solid structure in its middle, the design<br \/>\nsingularly fails to cash in on the idea of circumambulation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"> So<br \/>\nwhat about the Hadjj itself? I speak from the vantage point of one of Sir<br \/>\nJonathan Miller&#8217;s pious atheists, but this exhibition does no favours to Islam.<br \/>\nHadjj is required of any believer who has the means and opportunity to go to<br \/>\nMecca at the appropriate time of year. In fact, everything from the size of the<br \/>\n49 pebbles used to stone the pillars representing the devil to the seamlessness<br \/>\nof the two white male garments is ritually prescribed in detail. Even today the<br \/>\npilgrimage is costly, arduous, uncomfortable and occasionally dangerous.<br \/>\nPilgrims undertake it, if not solely, then chiefly because of the promised<br \/>\nreward of Paradise for doing so. If so many millions find it so easy to believe<br \/>\nin Paradise gained by following sometimes physically gruelling rituals that<br \/>\nhave grisly aspects including animal sacrifice, is it not easy to understand<br \/>\nwhy a few hundred of them might regard favourably killing people they see as<br \/>\nenemies? Mightn&#8217;t it be easy to persuade such people that assassination can be<br \/>\na shortcut to Paradise?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span lang=\"EN-US\"> The<br \/>\nbest thing about this exhibition is the large amount of new work collected or<br \/>\ncommissioned for it from living artists. I&#8217;m afraid, though, the experience of<br \/>\nseeing this mess is best summed-up in its final vitrine, a showcase of up-to-the-minute<br \/>\nsouvenir tat of the Hadjj.&nbsp; I&#8217;d<br \/>\nrecommend staying at home and reading <i>The<br \/>\nSatanic Verses. <\/i>Should this great international institution, the British<br \/>\nMuseum, really be hosting this feel-good exhibition?&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sydney Smirke&#8217;s (1797-1877) design for the Round Reading Room of the British Museum made it one of the architectural landmarks of the world. Readers&#8217; tickets have been held by Marx, Lenin (who used the name Jacob Richter on his library card), Bram Stoker (of &#8220;Dracula&#8221; notoriety) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle &#8211; and me. Since [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbv6zV-c0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}