Abstract
This paper is exploring the object biographies that exist within and around artefacts on display in museums. The case study, a practice-led museum theatre performance, staged in the University of Pretoria Museums’ (South Africa) new exhibition, ‘Moya’ (meaning spirit and wind), artistically investigates the role objects have in connecting to diverse spiritualities. Performance is used in the exhibition to engage with the objects on display which have connections to faith, belief, and, the inexplicable. The aim of the performance is to unpack the tensions of the intangibility of spirituality through tangible objects that have been artistically and functionally created as expressions of faith. In exploring spirituality, the performance used different vignettes performed in different areas of the gallery focusing on specific objects in the exhibition, to explore the complexities around absence and presence, and, timelessness and time-bound moments. Memory lingers beyond time and presence and thus how people long for and linger on memories of objects (regardless if they are still physically present) is of interest to this case study. Responses and personal memories of the museum visitors were collected as part of the performance experience to unpack how people connected to the displayed objects through the performance. It is this paradox of object existence – that they exist both physically but also intangibly in the memories of those who form associations with them – that forms the basis of the paper.
Presenters
Stephanie JenkinsPostdoctoral Fellow, Drama, University of Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Museum Theatre; Object Biographies; Spirituality; Intangible Heritages; University of Pretoria Museums
