Well I’m on vacation now, which means it’s time to catch up on Toronto attractions that I would never be brave enough to face on a weekend. Case in point: this ROM exhibit, documenting the political growth of the Qin dynasty in China, culminating in the enormous tomb complex built for emperor Ying Zheng circa 210 BCE.
The exhibit provides a solid historical grounding for the tomb, covering 500 years of dynastic change and conflict in China, but of course the real reason we’re all there is to see the terracotta warriors! Photos of the excavation site in Shaanxi province are haunting, showing endless rows of stone figures, surprisingly lifelike, to the point where at first glance, the missing heads seem deliberate.
The ROM exhibit includes ten of the life-size figures, in a variety of roles (military, civic, etc.). The stone sentinels are set in a gallery with little else in the way of historical description or related artifacts, allowing them, rightly, to take centre-stage. I must say that the dungeon-like Garfield Weston Exhibition Space is put to excellent use here – with walls painted dark brown, lots of angular corners, and statues lit eerily from below, it is easy to imagine that this is, in fact, a tomb.
Very spooky!
Unfortunately, I am immature, and the horses strongly
reminded me of Gumby's horse, Pokey.
After the terracotta army, the remaining smaller artifacts, housed by sunny yellow walls, seem uninteresting and anti-climatic. I think the exhibition would have done better to end with its strongest pieces.
Side notes on the ROM – it was sunny in Toronto today, making the dinosaurs a particular treat, but I am sorry to say that the batcave is not what it once was. Eschewing the strobe-light heavy finale in favour of a hokey narrator was a mistake.
Photos from the Wikimedia commons and courtesy of www.rom.on.ca
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