Alexander the Great: 2000 Years of Treasures
I visited the Australian Museum in Sydney to see this exhibition and wasn’t sure what to expect, given I hadn’t done my research. It was divided into sections focusing on the life and war exploits of Alexander, and the subsequent influence of Hellenistic art and culture in the Mediterranean.
I found the exhibition layout to be quite standard, with large and medium text panels leading the visitor from one battle location to the next. The use of gold text as focus points on the walls worked well in theory, however with the limited lighting some of it got lost. Especially the location headers such as ‘Bactria’ and ‘Syria’ which were high above the display cabinets.
The most dominant feature of the first room was a giant tapestry, which drew the least amount of visitors in the room. The gold headdress was definitely a focus point for visitors, as were the short visual interviews with Australian University academics. It was disappointing to see most people walk past the timeline which ran the length of the ramp between the two rooms. It showed the death of Alexander, the rise of the Seleucids, Ptolemies and the fights for various thrones in what remained of Alexander’s empire, in the years following his death. It created a nice link to the next room which focused on the reach of hellenic art and culture, the fascination with, and depictions of Alexander across the globe until modern times.
The highlight of the second room was the interactive table/screen map of Alexander’s empire showing ancient sites, battle locations and other information. Visitors pressed on cities to see photos pop up of famous objects and locations. It was almost like a giant iPad as you could resize, drag and move the images around. It was popular with children and adults alike – at one point a woman was pressing into my back just to get her hands on it!
Overall an interesting exhibition with some great highlights. A few tweaks here and there, particularly with audio-visual content and interpretive material, would have made it a greater experience.
little ostraca 