FANG-TASTIC BLOODSUCKERS: INSIDE THE MEDIA PREVIEW

Muse News | Michelle Wright

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On Wednesday, November 13th Musings was invited to the Royal Ontario Museum's (ROM) media preview of the blockbuster exhibition Bloodsucker: Legends to Leeches and it did not disappoint!

Dr. Sebastian Kvist. Photo courtesy of Alexandra Forand.

The morning started with perfectly themed refreshments, such as blood-orange cake, deviled-eggs, and little peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into bat shapes! We took our seats as CEO Josh Basseches gave his introduction speech and handed it off to curator Dr. Sebastian Kvist, who, with his fellow curator Dr. Doug Currie and their team, have worked on the exhibition for the past 11 months. He showed pictures of their field research where they often used themselves as live bait to collect samples of leeches and mosquitos and other fun bloodsuckers. Talk about dedication! Kvist also spoke about what he thinks this exhibition truly is; “Natural history has inspired culture, story telling, and artistic inspiration, that in turn has affected how we think of the natural kingdom. What this show would like to do, is to be able to empower you with the knowledge to be able to live side by side with bloodsuckers. Empowered by the knowledge that we can hopefully provide at this show.” We were then taken to the exhibition (located in Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall, Level B2) and given a tour by Kvist himself.

Introduction section on blood. Photo Courtesy of Alexandra Forand.

The bright red colour running through the exhibition works perfectly to remind the visitor of blood that is the source of sustenance for these creatures. The exhibition is broken up into nine sections and utilizes a variety of sounds, interactives, and visuals to immerse the visitor in the experience.  The introduction section set the stage for feeling like the visitor was inside a vein itself. The round shape of the room, the heart-beat sound, and the display gave the impression of a vein and allows the visitor to learn about the thing that is so important to these animals: blood. We toured through other sections on evolution, how animals suck blood, the diversity wall, folk lore on vampiric creatures, pop culture’s expression of vampires, the history of bloodletting, and the how to live with these creatures today. The exhibition was also filled with live specimen, such as leeches, mosquitoes, sea lamprey, and more.

Sea Lamprey. Photo Courtesy of Alexandra Forand.

Two things that Kvist highlighted about the exhibition was that it is trans-disciplinary, as well as a unique story to the ROM. Let’s sink our teeth into these for a moment. Including the sections on folk lore and pop culture makes this exhibition trans-disciplinary, meaning that there is both natural history and cultural history. But was adding these elements actually necessary for the exhibition? In many ways they feel like a way to draw people into the exhibition in the first place.

How do you get people to come into an exhibition about mosquitoes and leeches when most people actively avoid such creatures? 

By connecting them with things people do want to see; vampires. But if I’m honest you can just skip this part of the exhibition. It was well done, but the exhibition is so rich with other information to explore. We have seen vampires so often that it doesn’t feel like anything new. I will admit that I did like the first edition books Dracula that are on display.

Three books of original vampire tales; Vikram and The Vampire, first addition Dracula, and Carmella. Photo Courtesy of Alexandra Forand. 

Lastly the uniquely ROM story. One of my favourite sections was the barber shop from the 1700’s that spoke about the history of bloodletting. Bloodletting was originally performed by monks, but in the 12-14 century the church told them to focus on theology. Barbers had been coming to the monasteries for a long time to shave the monks’ heads. They had a presence and they had sharp objects to use in bloodletting. To this day, barber polls are indications of bloodletting, the red strip shows this barber let blood, and the white strips indicated the bandages they would use to patch up the wound, while the top ball indicates that leaches were used. Kvist explained that almost all of the objects here come from the European department of the ROM. He says that this is the reason why they are so proud that this is a ROM original show, because the ROM is filled with experts in so many fields.

Using an interactive element on mosquitoes. Photo Courtesy of Alexandra Forand.

There were a few missed opportunities, for example I would have loved to see something on blood donations, or even a partnership with blood drives. But of course you can’t hit everything.

Overall, the exhibition was a success and worth checking out, you could even say it is fang-tastic!