Tom Jeffreys washes his hands for yet another brilliant exhibition at the Wellcome Collection.
And they've done it again. Yet again, the Wellcome Collection have put on the kind of exhibition that makes them probably the most consistently interesting institution in London. After the last exhibition about drugs, and earlier ones about the heart, skin, sleep and madness, the curators have taken a similar approach to the bigger and yet more frequently overlooked subject of Dirt.
The exhibition takes its cue from anthropologist Mary Douglas' argument that dirt is merely matter out of place, and proceeds by looking at the role of waste in six different geographical, social and historical contexts. As is the way with Wellcome, all manner of objects, artworks and artefacts are on display – from satirical cartoons to propaganda, maps, charts, architectural models, documentary film, specially commissioned contemporary art, and even a glass flask filled with urine dating back to 1868.
Those familiar with the Wellcome Collection's curatorial ethos will instantly recognise the kind of Foucauldian approach that the institution prefers. The emphasis is not on what dirt actually is in terms of content; it's on what it means. Douglas' initial premise effectively does away with any need to define dirt's intrinsic properties anyway – dirt here is that which is unwanted, left over or cast aside. There's also a desire not to privilege any single system of understanding (be it medical, historical, philosophical, anthropological etc) but to allow these different discourses the space to operate with, against and alongside each other.
Things kick off in The Home, in the Delft of 1680s, move through the streets of 1850s London via a hospital in 1860s Glasgow and on to the Hygiene Museum built in Dresden in the 1930s. These are periods in which the Wellcome Collection is always particularly strong and these first four sections are excellent. Highlights include Susan Collis' 2007 piece Waltzer, a jewel-inlaid broom propped up in the corner, just next to a 1600 engraving of Jesus sweeping clean the human heart, also with a humble broom; and Serena Korda's specially commissioned piece, Laid to Rest – a pile of bricks containing dust collected from across London (including Spoonfed HQ). There's also a wicked video to accompany it, whilst the opening night saw a bonkers ritualised performance piece.
Laid to Rest is part of a section which explores the cholera epidemic in London, John Snow's pioneering research and the incompetence of the authorities. There's a hilarious satirical lithograph of officers from the London Board of Health hunting high and low for pesky cholera (as if it were some kind of sneaky pest), while the elaborate multi-coloured cholera prevention outfits are really pretty awesome.
By contrast is the Museum of Hygiene in Dresden, where we see the politicalisation of health. The manner in which the museum was co-opted by the Nazis is particularly chilling, and highlights the way that, as twisted an ideology as Nazism was, when seen as an extension of Modernism's central tenets, it's not entirely illogical. Unity, power and purity are all to the fore in the museum's starkly modern architecture, and the move from this towards a desire for racial, national 'purity' is all too easy to see.
Dirt is not completely without its problems though. Up to this point, the exhibition is incisive, broad-reaching, and very clever, despite the presence of far more explanatory text than usual. What I like so much about Wellcome is the freedom they usually allow both to the objects on display and to their visitors. So it's a bit of a shame to see so much text here.
Dirt also feels too long (maybe it's all that reading) and the last two sections – India in 2011 and a vision of New York's Fresh Kill landfill site in 2030 – see Wellcome stepping outside of its comfort zone, with not entirely convincing results. Despite Paromita Vohra's 2006 searingly honest documentary film, Q2P, the last two sections are rather light on artefacts from the Collection, and consequently lack the usual sense of grounding or gravitas. It's a shame that Dirt kind of peters out, because it's a fascinating topic, and by and large, a brilliant exploration of it.
Dirt is at the Wellcome Collection until 31st August 2011.
Dirt is part of the Dirt Season - which includes a whole host of amazing events. Click here for the full programme.
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