Medals of Dishonour
British Museum, London WC1B, until 27 September
A collection of medals probably doesn’t sound very exciting or interesting (to anyone but a exonumist, anyway), and to be honest, I was intrigued more by the clever corruption of the letter ‘i’ in the posters advertising the exhibition, but I found it so fascinating I ended up buying the excellent catalogue.
From exquisitely cast 17th Century Dutch and German ‘medals’ designed to wind up the Spanish or warn about the profligacy of financial lenders (timely, eh?) to medals cast in protest after WWI out of Iron and an award created for a repeat ASBO offender, it’s a really fascinating sideways look at satire and socio-economic comment over the past four and a half centuries.
As well as the interesting statements and contexts, there are some pieces that are worth seeing for the artwork alone: Duchamp, William Kentridge and Jake/Dinos Chapman are all present, and there is a brilliant piece from Yun-Fei Ji.
It’s a really terrific exhibition, and I’d encourage everyone, young and old to go and take a look.
