Lost Sense, 1998
Institute of Contemporary Culture, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.
Widgery was invited by Howard Collinson, curator of the Institute of Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto to create an exhibition that responded to the vast collection of human artifacts and scientific specimens at the ROM. Lost Sense opened in February 1998 and was such a popular exhibit that its run was extended until October. Each work combines a human artifact and scientific speciman in ways that refer to one of our senses. The act of putting each work in a glass case with study lamps bestowed a legitimacy on the works as if they were indeed actual specimens. The notion of collecting is subtlety challenged as it reveals our hubris and need to claim dominance over the physical world.
