Collecting things, Collecting people.

I had a lecture with Dr.Clare Rose on the origins of museums and such. Orginally museums were basically cabinets of curiosities the wealthy created as knowledgable past time. Which given a few hundered years got established into the museums we know today. It began in the 1600's exchanges between cultures became readily available and these goods were often purchased by the wealthy to collect. However all this trading eventually destablised cultures as Europeans saw the East in general as primative.

 I went to the Bristish museum to see the current exhibition of 'Benin art- Sainsbury's African Galleries'. On first inspection of the gallery you can clearly pick up on certain tribal styles that you expect from African art, but the use of materials can clearly be seen to use modern materials often involving recycling and expressing modern issues of war and poverty. After visiting the exhibition and reflecting on the history of trade between the east and west, one thing that i feel that trade has created is the on going influence it has on cultures and stereotypes sometimes negitive but i feel its worth this for the things that both sides recieve in return- even though now its hard to differenciate some parts of the western and eastern worlds which i feel is a bit of a shame due to loss of culture.