SCOTLAND: A CHANGING NATION
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Kirstin Innes gets a sneak preview of Scotland: A ’ Changing Nation, a major new exhibition that tells the nation's story from the 20th century onwards, through pop culture, poetry, politics and Proclaimers lyrics
anything.‘ says Maureen Barrie. standing
with her arms spread in front of a blank wall that will shortly be emblazoned with a giant replica of a Tunnock‘s Teacake. ‘but we’re a hell of a nation if you think about it.‘
Barrie is responsible for bringing together the National Museum of Scotland's newest permanent exhibition. which has taken three years to gestate and opens this fortnight. Taking up a whole gallery in the new part of the Museum. just underneath The Tower restaurant. Scotland: A Changing Nation looks at the massive changes wrought on the country in the 20th and 21st centuries. And. as the presence of a giant Tunnock‘s Teacake might indicate. this new exhibition is much more than a dusty set of boxed-off. didatically-appendixed glass cases.
‘We didn't want to use this gallery to tell people a complete history.‘ says Barrie. ‘No-one can tell the whole of this last century in
‘ I don‘t want to blow our own trumpet. or
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Scotland: it‘s not possible. What we wanted to do was look at themes that have affected and shaped people’s lives. both in Scotland and globally. And we‘re using everything we can to explore those themes: poetry. paintings. personal individual stories. projections. historic artefacts. lrn Bru adverts.
music and specially
commissioned films. archive
footage. even Proclaimcrs'
lyrics!’
She‘s serious — the lyrics to ‘1.etter from America. and 'Scotland‘s Story" are projected all over the gallery. offering pop- culture context on the exhihits ,_ and summing up the accessible. ‘ hands-on approach the curators have taken to their very broad subject. However. they‘ve also achieved a very delicate balance. examining and celebrating Scotland without recourse to either out-and—out Nationalist grandstanding or the kind of 'cultural cringe~ recently derided in Jack McConnell‘s national slogan: "The best (small) country in the world‘.
look at this] says Barrie as we enter the section on health and housing. "l‘here‘s a wonderful set tip here: cigarette coupons from the l‘)()()s. that you saved up to buy this deep fat fryer. So there you go. smoking and fatty food. ()h. we‘re just a terrific country! Just wonderful! But then. in this gallery we very much want to say ‘Yes. there are flaws in Scotland. Yes. we