Our first day back at Chelsea featured a school trip to the science museum for a visit to the Hidden Heroes exhibition which arguably wasn’t worth the £3.50 it cost to get in (there’s really no argument involved because the conclusive answer for anyone who’s actually been is that it’s not). The exhibition is basically a celebration of the unsung objects that make modern life easier through the most genius design, from wall plugs and ear plugs to plasters and cartons - this part I actually find very interesting. What wasn’t so pleasant, however, was the way the exhibition was put together, as if the curator was given 20 minutes per item to make a ‘display box’ thereby shoving whatever marginally relevant thing they could think of inside; Let me give an example:
Post-it notes (very good invention): “Let's cover the box in post-its (unfortunately overseeing the fact that they do eventually fall off) and stick up a photo of a man covered in post-its. Done.”
Perhaps the whole teeny-tiny exhibition is supposed to be kitsch but considered, since one might suppose that representing mundane objects should really only be done in the most mundane way, lest they be over worshipped and become arrogant.
The banal thing is that for £6 you can go and look at a room full of objects which most of us use everyday.
