Anchorless Bodies: an exhibition at the Parker Library

Anchorless Bodies: Navigating Arabic in Medieval Manuscripts With Works by Emii Alrai: An Exhibition at the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, curated by E.K. Myerson, Parker Library ECRF. 

Alrai uses the phrase ‘Anchorless Bodies’ to describe her artworks, which draw inspiration from the debris of archaeological excavations, and from medieval astronomy.  ‘Anchorless bodies’ are displaced or unfixed, in space and time: a condition which might be experienced variously by looted objects, ghosts, artifacts in museum vitrines, alchemical metals, celestial bodies and immigrant communities. In this show, Alrai’s artworks take the viewer on a new route into medieval manuscripts and artefacts related to medieval migration, medicine and alchemy – maps, images and texts, as well as two astrolabes, the scientific instruments used for marine navigation. 

The display has been arranged in collaboration with the Whipple Museum, and is supported by AHRC IAA Funding.

The show opens on 25 May and will run until 25 September 2023.  Viewing Monday–Friday, by appointment: contact parker-library@corpus.cam.ac.uk 

E.K. Myerson, Parker Sub-Librarian Tuija Ainonen and Emii Alrai in the Parker Library.