Human Form in Art

2008
Duration 00:17:41:15
Digital Video / PAL 16:9 Anamorphic

A film shot in the extraordinary Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, during the ‘decant’ of a number of display cases in advance of building work in the museum's entrance; here, a number of curators remove items from display, check their condition, and pack them safely for storage.

Human Form in Art is the descriptive title of the two particular display cases being decanted, which contain object representations of the human form. Given the comparative nature of many of the displays in the Pitt Rivers Museum, some of the objects are more representational, some more abstract, than others; indeed, the move to abstraction was something that the Museum's displays have, historically, paid particular attention to. Similarly, the actual human forms of the curators working on these displays are subject to increasing abstraction — bisected by display cases, or becoming rather immaterial reflections — before disappearing completely, their protective coats and gloves all that remain.