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Evil and wickedness are hard to witness, and people since the dawn of time have devised ways to explain why bad things happen. Though it’s just the way of the world, many are convinced that things aren’t just randomly bad; they’re cursed!
Others have even spent their lives trying to make cursed things or protect themselves from things they “know” are cursed. Many such objects are being held in the new Toledo Museum of Art exhibit Cursed! The Power of Magic in the Ancient World.
Safe behind glass
First, an important point should be made: you are not at risk of being cursed by visiting this exhibit. “Fortunately, I don’t seem to have suffered any ill effects,” said Jeffrey Spier, guest curator for the exhibition and former senior curator of the Getty Villa Museum, who put Cursed! together; so if anyone would get cursed by the exhibit, he certainly would. “I don’t think the objects harm the people handing them, unless they are the intended subject of a curse!”
The very evil but very nice exhibit is being held in the Glass Pavilion on the TMA campus, across from the main museum building. It’s at the back of the pavilion, completely shrouded from the outside with black fabric, and has a ticket booth stationed at the front almost like a guard post. Even before entering you can tell that you’re about to see things you shouldn’t, adding to the mystique of Cursed!.
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Inside you’re met with objects great and small, from all different times and parts of the world, all connected by their mystical origins. Both personally-carried trinkets and rarely-seen statues are displayed along with stories of their use and details of their discovery. One such prominently displayed example is the carved head of Pazuzu, an Assyrian “wind demon”, which is a favorite piece of curator Spier and a key piece in the exhibit’s advertising.
Magic through the ages
The exhibit is broken down into areas representing famous ancient societies, starting in Egypt before moving to Mesopotamia, Greece, then ending in a large Roman Empire room. The relics contain things like an old spellbook written on papyrus and an engraved piece of quartz invoking demons to help people win legal disputes. “ The objects will probably not be familiar to those coming to see the exhibition,” explained Spier, “but they will be sympathetic to the aims of the magic objects, which were intended to help those in need: for healing, for love, or in times of stress.”
Though we can speculate, it’ll never be clear if the objects in Cursed! are really magically-enhanced or not. Even so you can be sure you’re seeing a collection of art that people put their dreams and ambitions into thousands of years ago, and they survived all that time to be seen by visitors of the Toledo Museum of Art. There’s got to be something magical about that.
Cursed! The Power of Magic in the Ancient World is running at the Glass Pavillion at the Toledo Museum of Art now until July 5th. Tickets are $10 for members and non-members, children under 4 get in free.
