Later this year, the British Museum will open its first major exhibition that will explore female spirituals including a contemporary icon of the Hindu goddess Kali by Bengali artist Kaushik Ghosh. The ‘Feminine Power: The Divine To The Demonic’ opens on May 19 at the British Museum.
The exhibits also include painted scrolls from Tibet, Roman sculpture, intricate personal amulets from Egypt and Japanese prints. Along with this, there will commentaries from figures including classicist and broadcaster Professor Mary Beard, The Guilty Feminist podcaster Deborah Frances-White, writer Elizabeth Day and former army officer and lawyer Rabia Siddique.
The icon of Kali shows the goddess wearing a string of bloodied heads which represents her power to destroy the individual ego.
Curator Belinda Crerar said: “This exhibition is a tour through history and around the world to see the different ways female power and authority have been perceived in spiritual belief. The diversity of these goddesses, spirits, enlightened beings and saints, and their profound influence in people’s lives today and in the past, gives us pause to reflect on how femininity – and indeed masculinity – are defined and valued now and in the future.”
