ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the model of yhyakh as a focal point of display. Commissioned for the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867 it has since been shown in London three times (in 1868, 2011, and 2020) and in Yakutsk in 2015. The focus is on strategies used to create and communicate curatorial narratives such as: state-sponsored narratives linked to imperialism in Russia during a period of political instability in Europe; narratives of curiosity and wonder at a time when ethnographic collections were shifting in status in museums; and narratives concerning the imagination and creative skill of a presumed unknown craftsman. These curatorial narratives are informed by, but also shape, the intellectual histories of the respective institutions that have presented this enigmatic model to the public. They also highlight the slipperiness of the model – its shape-shifting capacity – to defy modes of classification imposed upon it through museum interpretive and curatorial practices. Collectively, they serve as a counterpoint to the narratives which arose from Sakha engagement with the model while it was on display in the National Museum of Arts, and which are examined in depth in Part 2.3.
