Smoking Hot Topic: Up in Smoke Exhibition Preview

Article by Mia Foale

A unique new exhibition is coming to St Andrews, showcasing a collection dedicated to the controversial topic of smoking. The exhibition, curated by the postgraduate students of the Museum and Gallery Studies course at the university, traces smoking from its inception as accessory for the aristocracy, through its heyday in Hollywood and to the present, as a divisive health hazard. 

Fittingly called Up in Smoke, the exhibition will feature a carefully curated collection of art, objects, literature, advertising and film to highlight smoking as a social practice and the changes this has undergone from the 1800s to the present. The exhibition offers a chance to travel back in time to see the tobacco’s “glorious” past, its dramatic decline and the often-ambivalent relationship we have toward it today. 

“Since tobacco was first brought back to Britain from the New World in the 16th century, smoking has been a hot topic,” commented Léa Rangé, one of nine postgraduate students involved with curating, organising and promoting the forthcoming exhibition. 

“Its influence and how it’s consumed have evolved significantly. Once limited to the well-to-do, by the late 19th century it was a product of mass consumption, driven by innovations in production and then the demand from soldiers in the First and Second World Wars.”

In recent years, tobacco and its practices have become ever more vilified, due to the indisputable links between health issues and smoking. However, this has not always been the case. Before tobacco’s fatal side-effects were uncovered in the 1960s, it was celebrated in films, aided the emancipation of women, and created a huge source of revenue in the media. 

The controversies and problems found in the history of smoking up until the present day are explored in the objects displayed. Pipes, snuff boxes, cigarette cases and smoking cabinets are just some of the objects named in the exhibition, all demonstrating the various uses of tobacco. Most of the collection has been drawn from local resources, also: most objects are borrowed from ONFife’s Archives and Collections, and the University of Dundee Museum. Reproductions have also been sourced from the University of St Andrews library, and even further afield; The Metropolitcan Museum in New York, for example, in addition to Stanford University and the Library of Congress in Washington DC. This is combined with opportunities to learn more about healthy lifestyles, with an activity room dedicated to well-being, and accompanying lectures on the negative impact of smoking. 

The interest in the topic and the passion for the project can clearly be felt in the dedication the team have put into the weeks leading up to the exhibition’s opening. The students have run bake sales, engaged relentlessly with patrons on social media, and have hosted film nights showcasing Hollywood’s changing attitudes to smoking. 

The first film night, presenting Jim Jarmusch’s 2003 anthology, Coffee and Cigarettes, offered a promising insight into what the exhibition would explore. The audience, once settled with complimentary popcorn and drinks, were reminded that the exhibition’s intent is not to glorify smoking, or encourage it as a habit. Instead, it is an exploration into different ways the practice has been presented socially, a theme which the eleven vignettes of Coffee and Cigarettes encapsulates perfectly. Each film-short focuses on two people, sometimes three, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. The dangers of smoking and addiction, alongside the awkwardness of first encounters, and both the joys and trials of friendship are all explored with a comic self-awareness by an eclectic celebrity ensemble. Cameos include Iggy Pop, Cate Blanchett, and Wu Tang Clan members GZA and RZA. The message of the film, however, extends beyond encouraging or disparaging smoking, as the audience is reminded how shared interests can be found anywhere, even for the briefest of moments. The forthcoming film night, on Thursday 20 February which will showcase Jason Reitman’s Thank you for Smoking (2005), and exhibition launching on 14 March, will hopefully do the same. 

Up in Smoke: A History of Smoking(14 March-6 June) is a free exhibition and has been curated with supervision by ONFife curators.

To find out more visit www.upinsmokeexhibition.home.blog/ or www.onfife.com.

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