Analysis Of Fake Eyelashes And Artificial Nails
Fake eyelashes and artificial nails – contested objects igniting new ideas on connecting and collecting.
By Mette Tapdrup Mortensen, Kroppedal Museum, Denmark
Introduction
In March 2017 mayors from Hvidovre municipal and Brøndby municipal on the Westbank of Copenhagen, wrote a letter in the Danish, daily newspaper Politiken entitled “We Are Not Just Those With Fake Eyelashes and Long, Artificial Nails”. Apparently, according to mayors, speaking on behalf of the entire Westbank. What brought them to rush into print, was an article published in the same newspaper a month earlier. The article was a feature on Kroppedal Museum, and the preparations for the upcoming exhibition 99xVSTGN [99xWestbank]: An experimental exhibition looking at 15.000 years of local history through 99 objects from the Westbank of Copenhagen. In the article, the journalist (and a photographer), follow the curator collecting objects from the local community. The curator stops by Siri Køster, a 24-year-old beautician living in a 1-bedroom flat in a high-rise block with her two bulldogs. The curator picks up a set of used fake eyelashes, a collection of both used and new artificial nails and hair extensions made of real hair from Brazil. Objects which, when placed in the context of a museum exhibition, turned out to be contested and …show more content…
An idea that grew out of a frustration over the lack of truly engaging object-information and histories in the registry of the museum. We wanted someone who was not bound by scientific rules to give a voice to objects, which the author Harald Voetmann did in the museum catalogue, Tingtale; a fiction where objects, memories and histories float in time and space. The title can roughly be translated to Objects Talk, and especially one text pinpoints the challenges of curatorial work: ”Don’t blame us for your vague and inadequate ideas of times where we perhaps had a purpose. Perhaps you look at the wrong objects. Perhaps you see us
By Mette Tapdrup Mortensen, Kroppedal Museum, Denmark
Introduction
In March 2017 mayors from Hvidovre municipal and Brøndby municipal on the Westbank of Copenhagen, wrote a letter in the Danish, daily newspaper Politiken entitled “We Are Not Just Those With Fake Eyelashes and Long, Artificial Nails”. Apparently, according to mayors, speaking on behalf of the entire Westbank. What brought them to rush into print, was an article published in the same newspaper a month earlier. The article was a feature on Kroppedal Museum, and the preparations for the upcoming exhibition 99xVSTGN [99xWestbank]: An experimental exhibition looking at 15.000 years of local history through 99 objects from the Westbank of Copenhagen. In the article, the journalist (and a photographer), follow the curator collecting objects from the local community. The curator stops by Siri Køster, a 24-year-old beautician living in a 1-bedroom flat in a high-rise block with her two bulldogs. The curator picks up a set of used fake eyelashes, a collection of both used and new artificial nails and hair extensions made of real hair from Brazil. Objects which, when placed in the context of a museum exhibition, turned out to be contested and …show more content…
An idea that grew out of a frustration over the lack of truly engaging object-information and histories in the registry of the museum. We wanted someone who was not bound by scientific rules to give a voice to objects, which the author Harald Voetmann did in the museum catalogue, Tingtale; a fiction where objects, memories and histories float in time and space. The title can roughly be translated to Objects Talk, and especially one text pinpoints the challenges of curatorial work: ”Don’t blame us for your vague and inadequate ideas of times where we perhaps had a purpose. Perhaps you look at the wrong objects. Perhaps you see us