Category: ThinkLikeMarabou

Decolonize Museums ThinkLikeMarabou

Speaking Up at the British Museum’s “I Object”

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In the “I Object” exhibition at the British Museum, there is discussion of pins/badges as forms of protest. Visitors are invited to, “design a badge and tell us what matters to you” on circular paper and hang them up for other visitors (and the museum) to see. 🌈 Marabou’s badge reads, “Transparency in Museum Acquisiton Processes.” More on the “I Object” exhibition in an upcoming post. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #marabouatthemuseum #museums #museumstudies #britishmuseum #iobject #londonmuseums #london #stolen #spoilsofwar #accountability #transparency #museumsarenotneutral #displayitlikeyoustoleit

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ThinkLikeMarabou Uncomfortable Realities

Guerrilla Girls on Sexual Predators in the Art World

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🌈Marabou has been on brief hiatus and will return in full form next week. In the meantime, check out the Guerrilla Girls’ guide to writing museum labels about artists who are also sexual abusers and assailants. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ | #Repost @caavisual | The Guerrilla Girls have created a new poster intended to help museums respond to the #MeToo movement. “In every institution there is probably [a debate] going on right now, trying to figure it out,” the Guerrilla Girl who goes by the name Kathe Kollwitz said. “We thought we’d help them.” #GuerrillaGirls via Javier Pes/ @artnet, first image by Jess Worth, Culture Unstained ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #marabouatthemuseum #museums #artmuseum #artistbiography #arthistory #painter #chuckclose #timesup #museumstudies #museumlabel

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African Art American Art Colonization Decolonize Imperialism Metropolitan Museum of Art Museums ThinkLikeMarabou

Categorizing at the Museum

Marabou wonders, can hierarchies of value be challenged or completely shattered if museums reconsider their methods of categorization? Why not tell the story of Africa, the entire continent, in one hall? Why not include all American objects in “The American Wing”?

How might we think differently about history when all the objects of a geographic location are together? When these objects share space, how might the narrative they create challenge the stories that are currently perpetuated?

met museum_categorizing_curatorial choices
Marabou looking at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first floor & mezzanine map and thinking about the physical and curatorial distances among objects that come from the same geographical areas.

… Categorizing at the Museum