15:00, 29 September 2021
Words by Smiley Team, Staff Writer, London
What does it mean to be happy? It’s a question many of us have asked ourselves. And it’s also one curators Laurie Britton Newell and George Vasey pondered when creating the Joy and Tranquility exhibitions at Wellcome Collection.
The exhibitions are part of the museum’s On Happiness season, which shares free events and activities that celebrate the complexity of positive emotions.
One of the powerful images shown in the Joy exhibition is a smiley face - created with people standing in a field - in the early 70s. The photograph was taken at Maryland University in America, the curators explain, and it was a peaceful mark of activism against the Vietnam war.
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“At that point the war had been going on for a long time and many protests against it had turned violent,” the curators tell Smiley News. “The photographer, Steve Budman and his fellow students, decided to form a smiley face by holding hands and create an image of 'positivity'."
The curators discovered the photograph online and said it was a “eureka” moment. It had originally been published in a student newspaper, “but it’s never been seen before so we’re very happy for it to be in the exhibition”, they add.
The image encapsulates many of the core themes of joy, the curators say. “It captures the sense of what it means to come together to create change. We live in a world that can often feel very harrowing and the image suggests that a lot can be achieved by a commitment to positivity.”
The hope for viewing this image is that people will reflect on what they would like to see change. “We’d also like people to reflect on the questions; who defines happiness and on what terms? Who is excluded from this narrative?” say Laurie and George.
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“It’s important to say that smiling isn’t just an expression of feeling good, it can mean lots of things. Every generation reclaims the smiley face in different ways to signal what they want to see in the world as much as what is already in it — that tomorrow maybe a little better than today.”
The Joy exhibition, which accompanies the Tranquility exhibition, both take a critical look at what it means to feel good. “Central to our ambitions as curators was to question how communities have attempted to feel happy throughout history, often as a reprieve from difficulty and uncertainty,” they say.
“We were also interested in the role of positive emotion on our body. We feel it's important people are able to better understand where emotions come from and how they’re formed."
In 2021 specifically, after the devastation of Covid, people are desperate for experiences that provide pleasure and sanctuary, they say.
“We want people to come back into Wellcome Collection and feel good while reflecting on what that may mean to them. The exhibition has been curated to create a range of different experiences for visitors that immerse them in our journey through this complex topic.
"People are ready for some joy.”
Find out more about the On Happiness season at Wellcome Collection here.
