Stephanie Moser (Southampton, UK): ‘The remarkable legacy of museum objects: ancient Egyptian furniture and modernist design icons’.

Join via Zoom

Abstract:
When ‘elevated’ to the status of museum object, archaeological artefacts become representative of people, of life, and history. While archaeologists, anthropologists and historians generate authoritative knowledge about past and present cultures, museum professionals also play a powerful role in defining ancient peoples and places. Through their collection, selection and display of ancient objects, museums construct important opportunities for engagement with material culture. Such opportunities have led to highly creative responses to ancient objects, some with long lasting legacies. This talk presents preliminary findings from a project on the impact of ancient Egypt on furniture design from the mid-nineteenth century to mid-century modernism. Building on my previous work on the reception of ancient Egypt, this project challenges the assumption that the influence/impact of ancient Egypt lies in the adoption of Egyptianising decorative details, such as sphinxes, the lotus, papyrus and winged scarabs. I argue that there is another much neglected dimension to the impact of ancient Egypt, which concerns the form, design and construction of manufactured and crafted goods.