Questions From the Audience

I found both of Mieke Bal's articles Telling, Showing, Showing Off and "Tradition" from her book Traveling Concepts in the Humanities: A Rough Guide incredibly interesting. It is not often the museum is examined in and of itself, nor the catharsis that results from the embrace of tradition in cultures drowning in history.

Telling, Showing, Showing Off:

In this article, Bal discusses the 'metamuseum', this concept that not only are museums preserves for whatever topic upon which they focus, but also act to preserve the museum itself; museums also exist to preserve themselves. She goes on to discuss not only the construction of the museum, but the motivation for the creation of the museum: the difference between 19th century colonialism and the 20th century focus on education. In this she notes that Donna Haraway has already criticized the way in which museums have obtained their relics and notes that she, too, will be discussing Akeley Hall of the elusive Second Floor of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The following struck me, for some reason: "There is a tension here, perhaps a paradox, inherent in the museum as a whole, between common and strange." (Bal, 562) Bal goes on to say, "[This discourse] claims the truth to which the viewer is asked to submit, endorsing the willing suspension of disbelief that rules the power of fiction.[. . .] this is the equivalent of the 'once upon a time' formula, the discourse of realism setting the terms of the contract between viewer or reader and museum or storyteller." (Bal, 563,564) I was further intrigued by the way in which she addressed how the museum deals with the "transition from this cultured "nature" to culture as nature - from mammals to peoples" (Bal, 564) She exemplifies this transition in the Queen Maya Exhibit and it is here I went from piqued to enthralled. She comments that the Queen Maya Giving Birth to the Buddha from her Side exhibit, a small black-box exhibit between the Indian rhinoceros and the water buffalo, has a "specific transitional function" (Bal, 566) What does that mean? How can a small statue of Queen Maya, placed between two quadrupeds, serve as the transition between animalia and human?

How does the Queen Maya relic serve as and/or exemplify this difficult transition? How does the accompanying text indicate this role? How does this minor exhibit fulfill its role as diplomat? Is this intended as a conscious or unconscious transition? Is it effective?

"Tradition" from Traveling Concepts in the Humanities: A Rough Guide:

In this chapter, Bal discusses how traditions have shaped society and further, where they have come from and, now that their (sometimes unpleasant) origins have been uncovered, what do we do? Do we allow the traditions to continue uninhibited? Do we try and change them? How do we respond to the newly formed darkness that surrounds some of our most cherished traditions?

Why allow the tradition to continue? After noting the pain and confusion it inflicts, why perpetuate these acts? To what end?