Arriving at UBC, there's a stench of fresh educated brains and optimism of students fills the air, makes me want to leave already and I look back at the bus to seriously think about it but I don't, and I put my hood up on my rain jacket and proceed in taking the shortest route to the museum, ignoring all the students and their mindless chatter about course credits and alcohol.
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| Well, this looks inspiring! |
I get to the museum and I instantly lose all my enthusiasm for this place, it's either the weather or the sudden realisation that I don't like humans or past culture hit me, but unfortunately for me, it's raining outside and I need change for the bus, I hand over a small fortune for my ticket and with as much sense of urgency than a sloth asleep, I go through to the unknown.
The museum was broken down into 4 sections:
First nation section, a big conservatory with piles of old decorated wood, didn't take much interest as to what was going on or what it was all about, judging by the convincing umming and ahhing that was taking place around me, it seemed like I really missed out on something really interesting. I was however distracted from the boring written nonsense as, I was captivated by the designs of their painted work, it was extremely pleasing to look at, it's just a shame that the rest of it like the giant achievements such as their carvings of totem poles, sculptures and boxes I found to be a bit visually tiring.
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| Except for this carving, because it's a bear! Grrr |
A ceramic section, a dark room with lots of old decorated plates and bits of ceramic debris from around the world, with awfully pretentious medieval string music playing in the background. The idea of this section, I think, is you're meant to walk around with an intelligently enthused attitude discussing how each piece looks different and the meaning behind it. It's the sort of grandiloquent area (me included) where you become the most knowledgeable person about absolutely everything in here, because you watched the Discovery Channel once, even though that program was about how beer is made.
Multiversity Galleries, open archive rooms of 10000 pieces of old things stuffed into draws and glass cabinets, you can explore to your heart's content... even though it's broken down into different sections, it was too much to focus on and the bits I peered into all contained old sweaters.
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| Multiversity, Interesting on the outside, sweaters in the middle! |
Audain Gallery has touring exhibits, this one contained brilliant screenprinted Inuit art which was interesting insight to them and their creativity but the whole section was tainted and its magic destroyed by having too much emphasise on the value of their art. It made the exhibit feel a bit like a corporation controlled hype machine to create a buzz within the market over their work to give the Inuit nation an industry and an income after the exploitation of mining and oil companies have destroyed their habitat and livelihood.
And speaking of hype, this museum doesn't really deserve the hype it gets, even with my initial negative, it's a small baron expensive hole to visit. I could've learnt more about the anthropology in British Columbia and Canada by spending my money and time, sitting in an old forest with a Tim Horton's picnic.
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