Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Project #5/Field Trip #6: You’re the Curator!



                                         " Strange Creations of the Egyptian Minds "

Growing up I always had a major interest in the Ancient Egyptian ways of life and their take on the afterlife. This fascination was inspired through how their way of life was so abnormal compared to the lives of people today. So, for my exhibit I chose the theme “Strange Creations of the Egyptian Mind”. The idea for this exhibit was construed through how many artworks like statue of Egyptian Gods were made fusing human and animal forms. Many times these gods were created this way to display what they were the keeper or God of. For Example, One Egyptian God that was created in this form was Anubis, the god of Mummification. This God was created with the head of what appeared to be some type of Canid and the body of a human being.

On my trip to the MET museum I was given the assignment of imagining myself as a curator, putting together my own exhibit. With this I then created a theme and gather ten pieces from the museum that helped to bring that theme to life. From the beginning I knew I had to do something with Egyptian culture and their way of life because it had fascinated me since I was young. With this theme I took inspiration from my favorite Rap Artist Kanye West's song "No Church in the Wild" where he lyricises the lifestyle and Domain of Ancient Egyptians in Life and After Life, and how they praised the afterlife. I then merged that with my interest in Egyptians and their Anthropomorphic ideas of fusing their Gods to be animal and human in one based on what they represented. With this I came up with my theme " Strange Creations of the Egyptian Minds". Each piece that I chose displayed the Egyptian customs of life. The pieces that struck me the most were the "Winged Nut" figurine, which displays the goddess of the sky with long beautiful wings that signified her protection of the animals above. Another piece that caught my attention was the statue of Egyptian God Anubis , the God of mummification who has the face of a canid animal , and the body of a human. And another piece was the statue of the sitting Goddess Sakhmet, who is displayed with the face of a lion wearing a sundisk, but the body of a human signifying her representation of danger and and violence. I chose these pieces because the goddesses were fused with animal features of what they represented. Which is what interested me from the beginning. 
                              Rogers Fund, "Tomb Chapel of Raemkai", 1908, Gallery 102 


Rogers Fund, "Sphinx of hatshepsut", 1931, Gallery 131



         J. Pierpont Morgan, " Canopic Jar representing the Diety      Duamutef", 1912, Gallery 131



                                                           Roger Fund, " Outter                                                  Coffin of Hettenway",1925, Gallery 126





                                                
Edward S. Harkness, "Winged Nut", 1929, Gallery 130


Mrs.Myron C. Taylor, " Statuette of Anubis", 1938, Gallery 133 


(left) Henry Walters, "Statue of the Goddess Sakhmet", 1915, Gallery 135
(right) Rogers Fund, " Statue of Hatsheput",1929,Gallery 115


                                            Egpyt, "Temple of Dendur", 15 B.C., Gallery 131