Meggie Macdonald

Babylon:  Myth and Reality is on at the British Museum, London, from 13 November 2008 until 15 March 2009.

As always, the British Museum has the knack for bringing history into a context where its present-day value can be gaged more readily, and without the usual strain that many historians and essayists force upon that connection.

I found, aesthetically, that the show was well lit and laid out, allowing visitors to traverse the exhibit with relatively ease (despite the crowds) and to view the artifacts, artworks and other aspects of the exhibit in a freeform manner (to a certain extent, anyway).  I am always appreciative of any museum that includes panoramic glass display cases, since I have always wanted to look at an artifact around 360 degrees, particularly if I can’t hold it in my hands too.  This allows audiences to view the work from more than one angle and in more than one place within the exhibit, adding a more visceral visual experience for the visitor.

In terms of the content of the exhibit, the combination of artifacts, ancient and modern art, Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, among others, was precisely what I was expecting.  This combination highlighed the uniqueness of the ancient artifacts and gave the visitor a visual experience of the city that, for all intents and purposes, has practically no visual remains.  And yet, this lack is irrelevant, since the concept of Babylon transcends any archaeological site and instead sits patiently in the mindset of the western world.  The inclusion of the table of the first map of the world and William Blake’s Nebuchadnezzar in particular were powerful elements:  the former because of its surprisingly awesome place in world history, and the latter because of its powerful if regluar evocation of ancient Babylon.

I did find, on occasion, that the modern art works seemed to clump together, apart from the ancient artifacts and thus dimished from the correlation between them.  This, however, may have been a product of space limiations and variety of modern art versus ancient artifacts.  And yet, it was only a minor sense of aesthetic and experiential weakness of the exhibit.

I would recommend this show for anyone looking to spend an hour staring at something completely different, for those who are fascinated by Ancient Mesopotamia and Babylon, and for those looking for a connection between the old world and the new, spanning time, space, and reality – for anyone looking for something and feels that they might find it here.