Monday, February 16, 2015

A LITERARY CELEBRATION OF THE ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM (ROM)

I love the ROM for its high ceilings and winding staircases and location in downtown Toronto. I love being dragged by Gordo the Barosaurus into the drama and scope of the past. I expect the giant skeleton to roar and crack those shiny wood floors with its heavy armored feet. As Sheree Fitch says about Gordo,"I was a paleontologist's puzzle, extinct, therefore I was--now I stand before you, Why? because, because..."  Photographed in all his glory by Jessica Toczko. Welcomed by volunteers who can answer almost anything, I take their maps and enter into world history for the day.  This is a feast for the eyes, a party with the exhibits, filled with people and now celebrating its first 100 years with a fabulous yellow (think gold) covered book: "Every Object Has A Story: Extraordinary Canadians Celebrate The Royal Ontario Museum".


Published in 2014, this is a partnership between the ROM and the Walrus Foundation and is a collection of 21 artifacts and the responses of Canadian writers, film makers, illustrators, scientists, photographers and curators.  When else have you had the chance to hear from curators and from Janet Carding, director and CEO of the ROM?  She, as well as all of the other contributors, encourages our interpretations and responses:  "Every individual who encounters an object brings something to it..."  It is all part of the ongoing, action filled story of the ROM.

In keeping with my passion for drama, costume and clothing, I am sharing my responses to two artifacts: an IKEM Headdress and a Sixth-Century Tunic.  I love the Headdress because both the hair and the head and face are regal, in fact, heart stopping.  The sculptured curls, piled high, remind me of my own teen ' up dos' controlled with cans of hair spray and calling out, "Take this oh mediocre adult world".  The real story is by Silvia Forni, Curator of Anthropology, who tells us that this headdress is also of a young woman, likely a teenager, who is being presented as marriageable to her community.  Hair and style, in all cultures, throughout history, always a rite and a door to somewhere. The Ikem Headdress, made of wood, antelope skin, bone and metal, could be worn by men or women for dance performances. With fabulous photography by Beau Gomez and poetry by Uzoma Esonwanne, further responses: "...her elongated neck soars--soars into her head palm crest, exfoliates two whorls of thick. black braids backing each other, ride the wind over her head..."  Once again, what we wore to dances and how we danced, always important rituals. Love the challenge of learning about the past, finding links from our own experiences and then taking it further in the best way we can.


 The Sixth-Century Tunic is presented by Anu Liivandi, Assistant Curator of Fashion and Textiles, of course, one of my favorite sections at the ROM.  This tunic, is woven, worn long or easily adjusted  to shorter and in my favorite colors, deep purple (royalty) and orange and yellow.  It truly reflects fashion of the day: Dionysian dancers, women in animal skins and scarves, and other necessaries for celebration - including musical instruments.  I like how Aritha Van Herk and photographer, Haley Wessel-Friesen, not only describe the tunic in minute detail but then pose the question: "Why was the tunic first worn?  For a celebration of the equinox?  For a name day? Or Simply because it was a new day and a new garment fit?"  Makes us think about what our own 'tunics', especially, those landscape prints, everywhere, today, say about our culture and times.

In its glory, the ROM and its celebration: EVERY OBJECT HAS A STORY: Extraordinary Canadians Celebrate The Royal Ontario Museum.



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