Title Dirt : the filthy reality of everyday life / Rosie Cox ... [et al.]

Published London : Profile Books in association with Wellcome Collection, 2011

Copies

Description 216 p. : col. ill., ports., map ; 23 cm Contents Machine generated contents note: Evacuation, Repair & Beautification: Dirt and the Body / Virginia Smith -- Dishing the Dirt: Dirt in the Home / Rosie Cox -- Crud Club: A Graphic Novel / Brian Ralph -- Leviticus Be Damned: Dirt in the Community / Elizabeth Pisani -- The Blue Girl: Dirt in the City / Rose George -- To Love a Landfill: Dirt and the Environment / Robin Nagle Summary 'Dirt' reveals the fascinating world of filth that remains one of the very last taboos. Our major new exhibition takes a closer look at something that surrounds us but that we are often reluctant to confront. 'Dirt' travels across centuries and continents to explore our ambivalent relationship with dirt. Bringing together around 200 artefacts spanning visual art, documentary photography, cultural ephemera, scientific artefacts, film and literature, the exhibition uncovers a rich history of disgust and delight in the grimy truths and dirty secrets of our past, and points to the uncertain future of filth, which poses a significant risk to our health but is also vital to our existence. Following anthropologist Mary Douglas's observation that dirt is 'matter out of place', the exhibition introduces six very different places as a starting point for exploring attitudes towards dirt and cleanliness: a home in 17th-century Delft in Holland, a street in Victorian London, a hospital in Glasgow in the 1860s, a museum in Dresden in the early 20th century, a community in present day New Delhi and a New York landfill site in 2030. Highlights include paintings by Pieter de Hooch, the earliest sketches of bacteria, John Snow's 'ghost map' of cholera, beautifully crafted delftware, Joseph Lister's scientific paraphernalia and a wide range of contemporary art, from Igor Eskinja's dust carpet, Susan Collis's bejewelled broom and James Croak's dirt window, to video pieces by Bruce Nauman and Mierle Ukeles and a specially commissioned work by Serena Korda Notes Issued to coincide with the DIRT exhibition at Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London from 24 March - 31 August 2011 Bibliography Includes bibliographical references Subject Human beings -- Health and hygiene -- History Water Supply -- History Sanitation -- History Sanitation -- Social aspects Water Supply -- history Disinfection -- history Hygiene -- history Sanitation -- history Hygiene -- History Water-supply -- History Sanitation -- History -- Exhibitions Human beings -- Health and hygiene -- Exhibitions Exhibitions Soap Genre/Form Exhibition catalogues. Author Cox, Rosie Wellcome Collection ISBN 184668479X 9781846684791

  Permalink