Identity: Eight Rooms, Nine Lives

Who exactly am I? How did I come to be this person and how will I change? They are the questions we ask ourselves every day. With so many conflicting factors determining our identities these are also musings that are, perhaps, impossible to answer.

This, however, is the daunting and controversial task that The Wellcome Trust takes up in a new exhibition that coincides with the 10th anniversary of The Human Genome Project and the start of Big Brother 2010.
Across eight rooms this fascinatingly diverse show presents a range of historical and contemporary ideas about self perception, cultural imperatives and the remarkably fluid nature of individuality. Each topic is illustrated by a celebrated figure whose own experiences open up pertinent debates.

The layout of this exhibition is deliberately random and disorientating. The outside of each wooden constructed room is featureless apart from an image of its subject. The nondescript exterior, however, conceals a rich array of identity related paraphernalia. You really will find everything here and there is an exhilaratingly interactive feel – you’re free to listen to head phones, watch videos and even read diaries.

Different mirrors adorn the spaces between the rooms as you saunter from one mini-exhibition to another. You are invited to visit each section in whatever order you choose. The emphasis is on the search for your own unique journey.

I began with a face I recognised – the actress Fiona Shaw who explored the nature of performance and the multitude of roles that we assume. The display’s notions of dreamy escapism were in stark contrast to the areas devoted to the dogmatic rules of science demonstrated by the life of Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin and Franz Joseph Gall who developed theories on brain localisation.

One of the most engaging lives explored was that of April Ashley, one of the first people in the U.K. to undergo a full sex-change operation. A proliferation of intoxicatingly glamorous images of Ashley filled the small space, counterpointed with mug shots of her as a boy. Letters to John Prescott requesting changes in her birth certificate poignantly summed up the rigid, inhibitive forces of identities that some of us are destined to battle.

It was precisely this use of identity as a control mechanism that dominated the section on Alec Jeffreys, pioneer of DNA profiling. The highly complex development is made easily accessible by magazine articles on murder hunts and even cartoon books and awards Jeffreys won in his youth.
A newspaper cutting explaining the use of DNA in identifying the dead body of Nazi Doctor Death Josef Mengele summoned up the sinister undertones of classification. This chilling spectre of ethnic cleansing echoed earlier sentiments expressed by Francis Galton in his writing on “Eugenics of The Jew.” Counterpointed with the flamboyant celebration of difference in the April Ashley display, it reminds us of the importance of fighting to preserve our individuality and daring to challenge pre-conceived prejudice.

Identity: Eight Rooms, Nine Lives, Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road
London NW1 2BE, until April 6 2010.