In 2008 I contributed to "The Unexhibitable: A Conversation", Exhibitionist (Vol.27. No.2. Fall 2008, p.7). This was in response to the question: What, if anything, is "unexhibitable"? I based my answer on an article about police museums that I had published in the UK's Museums Journal ("Right to Remain Silent?"). In it I concluded that, "when it comes to the question of policing today, it is clear that the traditional approach of an exhibition open to self-guided museum visitors does not work". By this I meant that museums dealing with policing and dependent on the support of local police forces are unable to address contentious contemporary issues.
Thinking about the limits of exhibitability helps to draw our attention to the often invisible constraints of museum practice. Of course, notions of acceptability are time and place specific: that which might be unproblematic in one museum at one historical moment could be unthinkable in another context. The work and ideas of the Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei springs to mind here.
Thinking about the limits of exhibitability helps to draw our attention to the often invisible constraints of museum practice. Of course, notions of acceptability are time and place specific: that which might be unproblematic in one museum at one historical moment could be unthinkable in another context. The work and ideas of the Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei springs to mind here.
