info: MUSEUM CLAUSUM

Some notes about 'THE MUSEUM CLAUSUM'

The name, Museum Clausum translates as ‘enclosed’ or ‘sealed’ museum, and is the title of Sir Thomas Browne’s 17th Century pamphlet, ‘MUSÆUM CLAUSUM’ (1683), which is an inventory of 'remarkable books, antiquities, pictures and rarities of several kinds, scarce or never seen by any man now living'. This humourous and ironic treatise on the Early Modern novelty of assembling objects in the manner of a Wunderkammer is hence an artistic comment on the questionable artificiality of museum-type display, as old as the museum itself.
In addition to the link to my own first name - it seemed to me a continuation of that spirit to adopt the name.

book cover: The Thing about Museums — My essay ***‘Photography–Museum: On Posing, Imageness and the Punctum*** is published in *The Thing About Museums.* The cover photo (photographed at Sir John Soane's Museum) is also my contribution.

Within the larger framework of my work, the museum has been a major focus for a number of years. My practice-based PhD in Art at Goldsmiths, University of London was also based on this museum work (completed 2012). The thesis, 'On Posing' focuses on issues around museums and photography and objects in museums that have strong links to absent bodies that touch viewers emotionally. Some of its core arguments have been published in the essay: 'Photography–Museum: On Posing, Imageness and the Punctum' in Sandra Dudley et al, eds. The Thing About Museums, Routledge. (Please feel free to email me for a copy of the essay if you are interested!)

Initially used for two exhibition projects (Museum Clausum, Deptford and The Deptford Maritime Museum), I adopted the name as a general artist's pseudonym - eventually also when featuring work that does not directly reflect on exhibition culture. By adopting this 'corporate', 'institutional' identity, I can present myself as collector and presenter of artefacts rather than as 'artist'. I have photographed museum interiors for a number of years with a distinct style, which is created 'in camera', and which I consider as matching thus unmasking the museum's own curatorial artificiality.
Presenting my own photographs under the umbrella title MUSEUM CLAUSUM: WUNDERCAMERA as a 'collection', emphasises the dedicated questioning of concepts such as curating, collecting and art making.
Another part of this whole research project is the exhibition series, WUNDERCAMERA EXHIBITIONS.

All in all, my Wundercamera projects aim to reflect on our relationship to objects and the importance of the role and function of museums for our culture and self-awareness - also including a questioning of its authority. Making work about museums reflects on the culture of exhibiting by putting museums on display. Emphasising the artifice in which objects are staged aims to draw attention to the relative transparency of the institution when constructing and presenting narratives. This, by default, creates room to question those very narratives on display whilst exposing the museum's complicity in perpetuating desired narratives and concealing others. In this respect, my work is certainly a critique of the institution, yet it is also always a declaration of love - a homage and an acknowledgement of the museum space as a possible medium for critical art practice as proved through a long tradition of artists who have worked on or with the museum. One could say that it is an aim to foster and promote increased critical 'museum literacy', as current changes in museums' policies are in danger to remain inadequate and superficial if these are not additionally supported by changes in museum visitors' way of perceiving or 'reading' museums -in short, being aware that the museum's authority is to be questioned. Otherwise the museum will continue to simply 'tell' stories - only that the stories told have been altered to suit current political trends.