‘Cabinets of Heartbreak’ Launch
The ‘Cabinets of Heartbreak’ project officially launched in February, with nine first- and second-year History students designing their own displays on the theme of heartbreak, which are situated around the History department at Warwick. Within our theme, participants were free to focus on any aspect of the subject which most interested them, tackling every era of history from the ancient to contemporary world. The final Cabinets explore a wonderful array of topics, from experiences of widowhood and divorce to the music of heartbreak in history, the hearts broken by Romantic poet Lord Byron, the anatomical heart, and the modern-day condition of takotsubo cardiomyopathy, better-known as ‘broken heart syndrome’.
In planning their displays, the students attended a talk by Polly Putnam, Curator of Collections at Historic Royal Palaces, on the principles of exhibition design, and the most effective ways of making objects “speak”. Their challenge was how to tell the history of heartbreak in an eye-catching and engaging way in six compartments, drawing on an assortment of texts, images, and objects, including surgical tools and anatomical models generously loaned to us by the Warwick Medical School.
The final displays are wonderfully creative, utilising fresh red roses designed to wilt and die as the exhibition progresses, handmade flick-books to visualise the pumping of the heart, hand-painted wallpaper and pottery, spools of wool to characterise the heartstrings, miniature keys to evoke the material world of the widowed landlady, and a washing line charting legal change over the centuries.
The Cabinets were introduced to staff and students at a launch event, with further details now available about each Cabinet on the project website: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/research_opportunities/cabinets_of_curiosity/
Huge congratulations to all of the students involved in this year’s project for their for their incredible ingenuity and creativity. The Cabinets will remain in situ on the History Floor of the Faculty of Arts Building (Level 3) for the remainder of the academic year.