Davenport show opens Thursday evening, runs until May 11
The McKissick Museum has held its share of intriguing exhibits over the years, but its current show is perhaps one of the most bizarre.
Beaufort-based artist Rebecca Davenport’s carnival series, “Step Right Up! Sideshows in America,” which includes original works and relics of sideshow culture, opened Thursday evening with a reception at the museum.
The exhibit incorporates a variety of Davenport’s work with descriptions of each sideshow scene’s historical significance and the deeper meanings each represents.
Davenport’s pieces are bright, but shadowed by dark undertones, which Kyle Spirek, a second-year business student, noticed.
“It’s colorful, but it’s dark ... And a little creepy,” Spirek said.
When most people think of sideshows, they imagine sword-swallowers, bearded ladies and the like, but really, they were a strong part of circus culture, said Saddler Taylor, McKissick Museum’s chief curator of folklife and fieldwork.
And the performers looked down on the carnival-goers, Taylor said, not the other way around.
“Performers thought paying customers were the ones being exploited because [the performers] were being paid well and built strong bonds with one another,” Taylor said. “It makes you stop and think to stop feeling sorry for them and see them for who they are.”
At Thursday’s opening, the museum served whimsical refreshments, like freshly popped popcorn served in red and white carnival-style bags, animal crackers and large pretzels.
The exhibit, which is open to the public, will be shown for 16 weeks before it closes May 11.
Davenport will give a lecture about the collection today at 5:30 p.m. in the McKissick Gallery.
The museum will hold a pair of other events as it explores sideshow culture.
Leading scholars in sideshow history and disability studies will speak at a symposium March 28 at 5:30 p.m., and on April 12. Todd Robbins, a sideshow enthusiast, will recount the history of sideshows and the museum will show the documentary “American Carny: True Tales from the Circus sideshow.”