TRAVELLING THE SILK ROAD

Turfan market I worried while waiting on line with what seemed like a disproportionate amount of British visitors that "Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World", a decidedly anthropological exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History, might be at odds with its institution. I dreaded the inevitable Orientalism in halls that have long held dioramas of taxidermied snow leopards, light boxes illuminating dinosaurs fossils and a simulated tropical forest housing hundreds of butterflies. But the potential political awkwardness of representing the 4,600 miles (74,500 kilometres) of the thousand-year-old Silk Road–a particularly volatile area today–by way of “specimens” was relieved by the sheer thoroughness and thoughtfulness of this show.

Atmospheric details, such as the just-audible traditional music, the intricate mandalas projected on the carpet and the persimmon-hued raw silk draped along every wall, helped to create an immersive experience. Three stuffed camels loaded with satchels greet visitors at the show's entrance. They are Bacterian camels, not Arabian, I’ll later learn, with differences that are carefully catalogued and delightfully described.

children The Silk Road is not one continuous road, per se, but rather a network of trade routes rarely travelled all the way across. Transporting goods involved something like a relay race, with different caravans completing particular legs of the journey. Yet this show does not dwell on the harsh conditions and treacherous terrain of the road itself, but rather on the goods that were traded along the way. The exhibition is arranged geographically, from Xi’an in the east through Turfan and Samarkand to Baghdad in the west (the show's brochure doubles as a passport to be stamped en route). Each city is granted a few galleries in which goods are displayed and traditions explained.

Silk, the primary commodity of Xi’an, China’s Tang Dynasty capital, is seen here in every possible incarnation, from live silk worms to swatches of fabric. Step-by-step silk-weaving instructions are listed alongside an enormous, traditional loom. In the gallery devoted to Turfan, a “bustling oasis at the edge of the desert”, an entire wall is turned into Turfan’s night market, a regional alternative to trading in high heat. This display of exotic luxury is the show’s highlight, what I had been secretly waiting for all along: tiger pelts, ivory horns, coral branches, peacock feathers, Turkish figs, glaucous plums, roasted almonds, rosy apricots, Mongolian rock salt, lapidary pomegranates, burlap sacks full of spices, heaps of cosmetic pigments, sachets of aromatics. Waist-high ceramic urns with twist-off lids provided sniff-tests of essential oils. Yet seeing and smelling hardly felt like enough; I wanted to own these things.

The next stop was Samarkand, “home of prosperous merchants”. Here we learned the history of paper and its regional differences. East Asia specialised in bamboo, silk and Talipot palm leaf paper, while West Asia was known for its parchment and papyrus (examples of both are provided). When we finally ended our journey in Baghdad, the city most lauded for its academic and scientific achievements–water clocks, astrolabes (pictured right), model ships–I was thoroughly overstimulated. But here, as in the previous metropoli, we learned of a representative craft, this time glass-making. As with the others, the depictions of this process are surprisingly satisfying, rigidly organised and nicely pared down.

The entire curatorial conceit of "Traveling the Silk Road", whereby the exhibition route mimics the trade route, allows for a kind of museum experience that is all too rare. This is a very fine show, enlightening, gratifying and mercifully free of offensive exoticism. I found myself transformed into the ideal (and clichéd) museum-goer (and gift-shop consumer): white-knuckling my “passport”, I gazed covetously at peacock feathers and longed for a slice of Hami melon and a cup of Masala chai.

"Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World" is at the American Museum of Natural History in New York until August 15th 2010

~ ALICE GREGORY