Hi, I’m Sian, the VERVE project Curatorial Assistant. I have been working at the Pitt Rivers Museum in the Collections department for 6 years, cataloguing everything from amulets to spinning wheels. I am lucky that every day I work with different objects that have different stories and I am looking forward to uncovering even more of the Museum’s amazing collections during the course of the project.
So, what have I been up to so far? This week I have been cataloguing Mexican and Guatemalan secular dance masks. 'Cataloguing' is a museum term that covers several procedures to ensure we have all the details we ned about any given object. So it involves photographing and measuring the object, adding a detailed description to our database, and noting the object’s condition. Some of masks are very striking - they have piercing painted glass eyes and realistic looking teeth made from recycled porcelain sherds.
So, what have I been up to so far? This week I have been cataloguing Mexican and Guatemalan secular dance masks. 'Cataloguing' is a museum term that covers several procedures to ensure we have all the details we ned about any given object. So it involves photographing and measuring the object, adding a detailed description to our database, and noting the object’s condition. Some of masks are very striking - they have piercing painted glass eyes and realistic looking teeth made from recycled porcelain sherds.
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| PRM 1951.11.17 |
Some dance masks were made to represent cultural stereotypes or figures from colonial history. The mask below is said to represent Pedro de Alvarado, a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala in the 1530s.
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| PRM 1951.11.13 |
Sian
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