LONDON — The British Museum, home of the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon Sculptures, and many an Egyptian sarcophagus, is set to break new ground this spring with an exhibition dedicated to female power in world history, religion and folklore.
As its name suggests, “Feminine Power: the divine to the demonic” won’t shy away from the violent, menacing, and hell-raising figures of women throughout the ages, and promises to be a thought-provoking, and interactive, experience.
Art and artifacts from the ancient world to the modern day will be on display, including Kiki Smith’s 1994 sculpture “Lilith,” which is on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Another contemporary work on show will be an icon of the Hindu goddess Kali by the Bengali artist Kaushik Ghosh. Commissioned for the show, it is the first contemporary 3D representation of Kali in the British Museum’s collection.
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The show, which runs from May 19 until Sept. 25 at the museum’s Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery, will feature ancient sculpture, sacred artifacts, and contemporary art from six continents, and will examine the variety of ways in which femininity has been perceived over time.
More than 70 objects will be on display, and most of them have been drawn from the British Museum’s own collection. They include painted scrolls from Tibet; Roman sculpture; intricate personal amulets from Egypt; Japanese prints, and Indian relief carvings.
The show will be divided into five sections, looking at how deities, demons, saints and other spiritual beings have impacted areas of human life and experience such as wisdom, passion, nature, war and justice.
Lucy Dahlsen, the project curator of the show, said in an interview that it’s the right time to be looking at “the diversity of ways in which female power and authority — and ideas of femininity — have been venerated and celebrated across diverse cultural traditions, from the ancient world to today.”
She described the show as “rich” and “important,” and believes it will resonate with a broad demographic.
Dahlsen and her fellow curators have added an interesting dimension to the show. Visitors will be able to follow the curators’ narrative and descriptions, and — for the first time at the museum — they’ll also be able to listen to video and audio thought pieces from a series of female guest contributors.
The contributors will be talking about the show’s themes, and sharing their personal and professional viewpoints.
They include Dr. Leyla Hussein, the Somali-born, British psychotherapist and campaigner against violence against women; Prof. Mary Beard, the renowned professor of classics at Cambridge University, author and broadcaster, and the former British Army major and human rights lawyer Rabia Siddique.
In addition, the museum has been working with members of different faith communities to enrich the narrative further, and to offer multiple perspectives on how female figures from different spiritual traditions can be perceived.
“I hope it’s going to be a discursive space, where people can come, give their own view, and enter into dialogue with each other,” said Dahlsen, adding that at the end of the exhibition, there is going to be a space where visitors will be encouraged to answer questions, or offer up their opinions, via text message. Those comments, too, will become part of the exhibition.
There will be much to discuss.
The display includes amulets that people would have worn, or carried with them, for protection. “These were things that would have been worn in life, but also buried with the dead. They give a real sense of immediacy, and insight into people’s lives and how these spiritual figures would function in day-to-day life of [ordinary] people,” said Dahlsen, who worked closely with the show’s curator Belinda Crerar.
At the other end of the spectrum will be Smith’s unnerving, life-sized “Lilith,” a demonic figure in Jewish folklore, said to be the first wife of Adam, and the consort of Satan.
Her origins are thought to lie in Mesopotamian demons, according to the curators, and by the 19th century she came to embody the “defiance of patriarchal moral expectations.”
Smith’s sculpture was cast from the body of a human woman. Her eyes are made from blue glass, and she stares directly at the viewer as she crouches on all fours against the wall.
Dahlsen said the museum chose to display the sculpture “up high on a wall, so you will have ‘Lilith’ hanging high above you, transcending gravity. It’s really exciting to bring these contemporary, and ancient, artworks and sculptures, into dialogue and see the conversations that can emerge.”
The devotional image of Kali was commissioned especially for the exhibition together with the London Durgotsav Committee, which runs the annual Kali Puja festival in Camden, in Kali’s honor.
The museum said the Kali icon “reflects the living tradition of her worship, important for millions of Hindus around the world today. She transcends time and death, destroys ignorance and guides her followers to enlightenment.”
While the British Museum acknowledges that Kali may be “superficially terrifying,” what with all the bloodied heads she wears, she has the power to set her followers “free from worldly concerns” and “liberate them from the cycle of death and rebirth, by the many weapons she wields.”
The museum is planning a public program of events to accompany the exhibition later this year, while the catalogue, which was written by Belinda Crerar, will be published by the British Museum Press to coincide with the opening in May.
A children’s book called “Goddess: 50 Goddesses, Spirits, Saints and Other Female Figures Who Have Shaped Belief,” written by Janina Ramirez and illustrated by Sarah Walsh, will be published by Nosy Crow in collaboration with the British Museum.
Supported by Citi, the show will travel internationally, first to the National Museum of Australia in Canberra and then to five venues in Spain until 2025.