Imperial Gaze and The Great Exhibition of 1851: Tracing the colonial roots of exhibition design

Words by Bhavneet Kaur

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This map is a digitally rendered topographic representations of South Asia (printed in 2D). In order to create these maps, Digital Elevation Data (DEM) is obtained from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and is processed and digitally rendered to create a highly detailed elevation profile of South Asia and printed on a flat surface. Two versions of the map are available, each with different hypsometric color overlays that highlight the difference in elevation, creating beautiful artworks. (Available as print)

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Imperial Gaze and The Great Exhibition of 1851: Tracing the colonial roots of exhibition design

Fig. 1 India Court. Dickinson’s Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851.

I am, perhaps, another object in the museum, separated from its context, performing authentic cultural identity for othering eyes. I am in a split existence.

Looking is Power.

Professor and author E. Ann Kaplan investigates the imperial gaze as a way of being towards others and expressing domination. The imperial gaze, a looking relationship between the colonizer and the colonized constructs the nuances of intercultural hierarchies. Colonial eyes typify and neutralize the ‘other’ and inform how they see themselves. The gaze, established through travel and trade, continues to operate through the apparatus of visual technologies. In the case of my investigation, exhibitions.