EXHIBITIONS OF OURSELVES

Museums are rime machines that bring objects of different periods together then freeze them in a perpetual present so that all the resources of a museum are bent towards preventing change. However, these objects resist the initial destiny and they end up creating their own lives. It is a commonplace of museums, that objects should be allowed to speak for themselves but, of course, the sorts of stories they are allowed to tell are tightly controlled. In this article, by the use of irony and critique, Nigel Barley narrates a multitude of stories collected during his experience as curator of the British Museum.