Cutting Edge
I recently took a trip to the British Museum with culture vulture Steve, mostly to have a look at the visiting Cutting Edge exhibition of Japanese handiwork through the ages. The building itself has real presence and would be familiar to anybody who has read the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novel series by Alan Moore. Inside the museum it is a curious mix of artefacts that reminded me of the V&A, but much less cluttered. In fact, the museum itself is as much of the exhibition as the items within.
Highlights
I recently took a trip to the British Museum with culture vulture Steve, mostly to have a look at the visiting Cutting Edge exhibition of Japanese handiwork through the ages. The building itself has real presence and would be familiar to anybody who has read the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novel series by Alan Moore. Inside the museum it is a curious mix of artefacts that reminded me of the V&A, but much less cluttered. In fact, the museum itself is as much of the exhibition as the items within.
Highlights
- The central courtyard with its spectacular roof, the polygon structure of it reminded me of playing Tank Attack on an arcade machine as a youngster. The scale is very impressive
- The visiting display of Japanese swords in the Minolta Konica section of the museum is really cool
- The reading room in the central courtyard never fails to impress
- The restaurant was on the pricey side, but there are plenty of good restaurants and cafes nearby
- Despite signage that is streets ahead of the V&A we did get lost
- The tourist trap shops outside the museum are pretty grim and the shops within the museum are not much better
