Same thing, two stories: symbols of power dynamics

What do we know about power?

Is the world gradually becoming a liberal democracy, or is capital leading society into new forms of colonialism?

A curatorial team of four MA students from the University of Leeds have used collections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to create a new online exhibition.

The exhibition displays objects that once symbolized royal power, aristocratic privileges and family power, comparing them with contemporary objects with similar themes.

Same thing, two stories analyses two opposing concepts: symbols of de-empowerment shown alongside the possibility of new colonial thinking, making the audience reflect on symbols of power in our world.

Visit the exhibition

Same thing, two stories is part of a wider series of online exhibitions curated by Art Gallery and Museum Studies and Arts Management and Heritage MA students from the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, as part of an Interpretations course module.

Visit the online exhibition.

Images

Left: Portrait of a Woman and an Enslaved Servant by Nicolas de Largillierre (or Largillière) , French, 1696. Oil on canvas. 55 x 42 in. (139.7 x 106.7 cm). Rogers Fund, 1903.   License: Public Domain Mark 1.0.

Right: Self-Portrait by Egon Schiele, Austrian, 1911. Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper. 20 1/4 x 13 3/4 in. (51.4 x 34.9 cm). Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982. License: CC BY 2.0.

Images from The Metropolitan Museum of Art online collection.