The Field Museum

I must have been like four years old, and this is probably one of my earliest worthy memories.* My mother was working for the City of Chicago as a young architect. Her office was located a stone's throw away from the Field Museum, and my mother would often go there on lunch using her sweet city hook-up. This was not exactly a time of great wealth for our family, so when us kids were sick my mother would bring us to work and hide us under her drafting table. I have fond memories of playing with her Prismacolors in the two tiered box set or finding change in the bottom of my mother's purse to sneak off to the vending machines. The best, however, were when my mother would take me to the Field Museum.

Beyond the iconic Sue (the famous, very intact T-Rex), the Field Museum was full of mystery and excitement for me as a child. In fact, I think I've always known that's it's actually just really weird. Standing so diminutive under the 300 odd feet high ceiling, you could easily walk right by Sue whom stands at an unimpressive 13 feet. That's not a bad thing. Though Sue is really awesome for being the largest, most complete fossil yet discovered, what I really like are the permanent culture exhibits. What does that mean? Well, ever wonder what an Eskimo might look like? Well, they have super dated, semi-offensive renditions of peoples and their habitats. It's pretty great. I like to take my shoes off in the Maori Meeting House and run around aimlessly like I'm a little kid again or I get lost in an Egyptian tomb. You could never leave Chicago, go to the Field Museum, and have a totally narrow perception of life and culture in far away lands in place like Africa and Asia or lands that do not exist any more like America when the Natives thrived.

I am not the only one to think the exhibits are a little weird. In 1992-94 performance artists Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Coco Fusco tackled this very topic. The Year of the White Bear and Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit the West was a piece where the two artists posed as Guatinaui natives adorning grass skirts, wrestling masks, leopard skin bras, etc. They were presented in a cage where Field Museum (and others --it was a traveling exhibit) visitors could pay to see their "native dances" and museum staff fed them bananas. Their take on the the issue was quite a bit more fraught with cynicism and walked the line between the ridiculously offensive and meaningful satire. It was interesting, however, because many of the visitor truly believed this was a real exhibit and not a performance art piece. Ha, the performance was about as silly as some of the replicas on display.

OK, let's bring it back. I do not intend to make the Field Museum appear absurd. It's actually a great place with credible exhibits and even a fossil lab where you can see live professionals clean fossils. They also have interesting temporary exhibits that highlight anything from ancient Rome, to Pirates, or most recently diamonds. The permanent nature exhibits are a lot of fun too. I especially like the bird habitats.

Go, but be prepared to spend hours, and try to not let the kids hear you make your catty, immature, or cynical comments.

*I must note here that I have a terrible timeline, so I've got to make some stuff up.