Dirt: The Filthy Reality of Everyday Life, Wellcome Collection | reviews, news & interviews
Dirt: The Filthy Reality of Everyday Life, Wellcome Collection
Dirt: The Filthy Reality of Everyday Life, Wellcome Collection
Get down and dirty with this filthy exhibition
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Poster for the First International Hygiene Exhibition, 1911Photo credit: Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden
Weeds, memorably, have been described as merely being plants that grow where we don’t want them. Walking through the Wellcome’s fine new exhibition, we can conclude that the “dirt”, too, is merely material appearing out of its appropriate location. One man’s waste is another man’s fertiliser; one civilisation’s dust-heap another’s city foundations. Children first planting a window box learn that “dirt” is alchemy: stick in a seed, out of the dirt comes dinner.
Weeds, memorably, have been described as merely being plants that grow where we don’t want them. Walking through the Wellcome’s fine new exhibition, we can conclude that the “dirt”, too, is merely material appearing out of its appropriate location. One man’s waste is another man’s fertiliser; one civilisation’s dust-heap another’s city foundations. Children first planting a window box learn that “dirt” is alchemy: stick in a seed, out of the dirt comes dinner.
There are fascinating objects in this section - I am less certain about the "Intestinal excretion from patient with cholera”
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