Felicity Powell’s Tentacles, part of the Charmed Life exhibition (Photo: Wellcome Library, London)
When: 16th February – 14th April 2013 (Open Monday to Friday 9am – 7pm; Saturday 9am – 5pm and Sunday from 11am – 3pm)
Where: The Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre, Jewry Street, Winchester
£: Free
What is it?
Charmed Life: The Solace of Objects, an exhibition of 380 amulets curated by artist Felicity Powell will be open at The Gallery in the Winchester Discovery Centre from 16th February. A touring exhibition from the Wellcome Collection in partnership with the Pitt Rivers Museum, it also includes new pieces and videos by the artist.
Amulets have appeared throughout history and across cultures in a variety of forms. They are tiny embodiments of the anxieties we feel and their assumed powers often draw on the dark arts of superstition and magic.
Those on display range from simple coins to meticulously carved shells, dead animals to elaborately fashioned notes. They were collected by the banker and obsessive folklorist Edward Lovett who scoured London by night, buying curious objects mostly from the East End.
New pieces by Felicity Powell include an etched coin and 18 small-scale wax artworks, part of a larger ongoing series, they relate directly to amulets in the Lovett collection.
More info: www3.hants.gov.uk/wdc