Friday, 21 April 2017

R = Reading room

The first time I wandered into the Reading Room at Wellcome, I felt like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory.

Part art gallery, part library, part museum, part lounge room, part classroom: it's a cornucopia for the eyes and mind, an embodiment of the collection's catchphrase: the free destination for the incurably curious. You can take part in a pop-up event to learn more about the world, touch stuff, play games, write or draw your response to Wellcome and pin it up, interact with things and ideas; way more than reading goes on in there.

And if you DO want to read, you can go the conventional path and pull up a chair at a desk, or take up the invitation to plop on a huge cushion, lounge on a sofa, or even recline on a chaise. 
Reading Room Companion
Written and edited by Anna Faherty
I can easily lose an hour buried in the Reading Room Companion, 232 pages of fun facts and bewildering background about the plethora of paintings, sculptures, artefacts and manuscripts housed in the space.

I swear, nobody is paying me to say all this. 
Cross my heart.
I could seriously move into this place.







I'm going to enthuse about just one more thing before I leave you in peace: the mind-blowing bright red object in this photograph.

Fashioned of fake fur, it's called Closing Neural Tube Dress and it's a replica of one from a set of 27 dresses created as a collaboration between artist Helen Storey and her sister Kate, a developmental biologist. 

Each of the dresses represents a stage in the development of a life from the point of fertilisation to recognisably human form 1000 hours later. 
Incredible.

Science and art.
Art and life.
Life and death.
It's all in the Reading Room.





During the month of April, I am participating in the Blogging from A–Z Challenge.



  












18 comments:

  1. We just moved into a new home and my obsession is how soon can we create a book nook in the basement under the stairs??? Like this one: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/89157267604744898/

    Gail Park

    Making Life an Art

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh that would be divine. I hope you achieve your aim.
      I somehow thought a few A to Zers would have ideas about the ultimate reading space.
      Thanks for dropping by.

      Delete
  2. OK, I think I need to go sit there...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Join me there at any time.
      It's awesome.

      Delete
  3. What an interesting library. Sadly we don't have any such places. The nearest thing to this in my city is the neighbourhood bookshop which is also doing badly as everybody has his own Kindle

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love me electronic books; in fact, sometimes I read one when I'm in this reading room.

      Delete
    2. I tried to visit you at A-Z bhut had no luck. Sorry to have missed you.

      Delete
  4. I would love to have a library like that near me. I would never get any dusting done. Just read read read!

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  5. It does look like a great place to spend some time...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is. I bet you'd even find some constellation-related things there.

      Delete
  6. There were a few truly delicious reading spots on my college campus that I remember fondly. The libraries near me usually have all the good curl up places nabbed by the kids (not a bad thing, really). So we've tried to create some good nooks here at home.
    http://laurelgarver.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A decent place to read is missing from the flat we currently occupy. No book nooks. They are indeed part of what makes somewhere home. thanks for dropping by.

      Delete
  7. That is some library! I would never come out of it either! :P

    By the way, I stopped over from the AtoZ. Do visit mine sometime!

    Happy blogging!
    Chicky @ www.mysteriouskaddu.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lovely to meet you. I hope AtoZ is bringing you a lot of fun.

      Delete
  8. What a place! There seems so much to see and do there. You have kept me enthralled throughout Wendy. xx

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow, Wendy, I'd live there too! What a beautiful place! Libraries are cozy. I'd love to see all the dresses in that series. Clearly the place has been put together meticulously and lovingly. Let's clink to Sir Henry!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I tried to find all 27 dresses on-line but decided I was distracting myself unduly (as is my wont) because I'd love to see them all together, too.
    The Reading Room is irresistible. I think ou'd love it.

    ReplyDelete
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