A moment with Wesirwer

Urban art and antiquities blog (Lin Wang)

Lin's blog has been updated with a post about one of his favourite items at the Brooklyn Museum, where he is a docent. It is a very personal account of a response to an artefact, with useful facts which contribute to the story.

Here's an extract from Lin's post:

I like reading the labels in the museums, especially when what are written are not facts or data alone. The statue of the head of Wesirwer, in the Egyptian Reborn gallery at the Brooklyn Museum has an intriguing one. “This statue speaks to me the most….” said a kid when he was only 6 years old.

The statue of Wesirwer is special to me too. Whenever I am in the gallery, I would always spend a few moments with him and afterwards feel calm and peaceful. It also casts its spell on others. Rush visitors could not move their eyes away when they accidentally glance at the egg-shaped skull of Wesirwer.

I can understand why children feel connected to someone more than two and half millenniums ago. Wesirwer looks ageless: His face is as smooth and fresh as a budding teenager. Because of hair-shaving, his skull looks fairly large, like that of a typical school boy. He gazes downwards, thus looking directly into the eyes of children. Without explicit gender characteristics and religious gesture, Wesirwer looks just like a neighbor buddy.

See the above post for more. Thanks Lin.