The Lives of Chinese Objects (Louise Tythacott)
Louise has been researching the biographies of a group of rare Buddhist deities from China taken from temples on the sacred island of Putuo by a British soldier just after the First Opium War (1839-42). The bronzes were displayed in Great Exhibition of 1851 and the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857. After passing through a range of major antiquarian collections, they were acquired by Liverpool Museum in 1867 and, over the course of time, were shifted from evolutionary displays to an Oriental Art Gallery. Louise was responsible for curating and reinterpreting the deities during her time as Head of Ethnology and Curator of Asian collections at the World Museum Liverpool (1996-2003) and they are presently on display in the Buddhism section of the World Cultures gallery.
Louise’s book – The Lives of Chinese Objects: Buddhism, Imperialism and Display (published by Berghahn in 2011) - charts the changing meanings and values ascribed to the deities as they pass through multiple spheres of representation. It examines the past, present as well as the possible future lives of these sacred Buddhist objects.
http:www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=Tythacottlives