Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Join Abigail Thorn, actress, writer, and creator of Philosophy Tube, as she takes us on a tour around Wellcome Collection, a museum in London covering health and human experience.
The focus? A free temporary exhibition called “The Cult of Beauty”, which delves into the meaning of beauty and its evolution throughout history.
While highlighting some of the historical objects and artworks that resonate with her, Abigail reflects on beauty ideals past and present, positive and negative – how society is moulded by them, and how they have given shape to her own personal feelings about beauty.
This video has been made to accompany The Cult of Beauty exhibition – showing at Wellcome Collection until 28 April 2024.
Find out more on our website: wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/ZJ1zCxAAACMAczPA
0:00 - Intro
0:45 - Ancient beauty and Queen Nefertiti
01:42 - Husbands bringing their ugly wives to a windmill, to be transformed into beautiful women
02:28 - Beauty and ageing
02:44 - Alchemy and the Ripley Scroll
03:25 - What would Barbie look like if she was life size?
03:39 - Beauty as a moral duty, pseudomorality and Heather Widdows
05:40 - Renaissance beauty ingredients
06:07 - Beauty and social media
06:35 - Sleeping Hermaphroditus
07:22 - Hopeful works in The Cult of Beauty
08:25: What permissible beauty means to Abigail Thorn
08:40 - Conclusion
#TheCultOfBeauty #WellcomeCollection
Music: Nkisi, Lament II (instrumental)
Artwork credits:
Bust of Queen Nefertiti, originally c. 1351–34 BCE, Clarke and Davies, 1912–28 CE (reproduction), Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group
Husbands bringing their ugly wives to a windmill, to be transformed into beautiful women, Paulus Fürst c.1650, Wellcome Collection
Wax vanitas depicting life and death, modelled on Queen Elizabeth I, 1700s, Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group
Ripley Scroll, Unknown maker, after George Ripley, c. 1600, Wellcome Collection
Lifesize Barbie and Oriol, Adel Rootstein Ltd., 2009, Stiftung Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden. Social media: instagram.com/dhmdresden
'It makes no sense to be beautiful if no one is ugly', 2023, by Makeupbrutalism, commissioned by Wellcome Collection. Social media: instagram.com/makeupbrutalism
2 Reasons You’re Tired All the Time, Juno Calypso, 2013, Courtesy of the artist and T J Boulting and Slendertone II, Juno Calypso, 2015, Courtesy of the artist and T J Boulting. Social media: instagram.com/junocalypso
Beauty Sensorium, 2023, Renaissance Goo x Baum & Leahy, commissioned by Wellcome Collection. instagram.com/baumleahy and instagram.com/@profjillburke
‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, Beauty unravelled in the virtual scroll’, Xcessive Aesthetics, 2023
Sleeping Hermaphroditus, 2nd century CE (original), Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group
‘Perhaps We are all Fictions in the Eye of the Beholder’, Xu Yang, 2021, Courtesy of the artist. Social media: instagram.com/_xu.yang_
Permissible Beauty, 2022, © RCMG / Soup Co [film stills] / © Robert Taylor [production stills] / Reproduced with permission of RCMG, University of Leicester/ Soup Co. [new photography] instagram.com/permissiblebeauty
(Almost) all of my dead mother’s beautiful things, Narcissister, 2023, Commissioned by Wellcome Collection
Find us on Facebook: / facebook.com/wellcomecollection
See us on Instagram: / instagram.com/wellcomecollection
Follow us on Twitter: / twitter.com/explorewellcome
Follow us on Threads: / threads.net/wellcomecollection
Join Abigail Thorn, actress, writer, and creator of Philosophy Tube, as she takes us on a tour around Wellcome Collection, a museum in London covering health and human experience.
The focus? A free temporary exhibition called “The Cult of Beauty”, which delves into the meaning of beauty and its evolution throughout history.
While highlighting some of the historical objects and artworks that resonate with her, Abigail reflects on beauty ideals past and present, positive and negative – how society is moulded by them, and how they have given shape to her own personal feelings about beauty.
This video has been made to accompany The Cult of Beauty exhibition – showing at Wellcome Collection until 28 April 2024.
Find out more on our website: wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/ZJ1zCxAAACMAczPA
0:00 - Intro
0:45 - Ancient beauty and Queen Nefertiti
01:42 - Husbands bringing their ugly wives to a windmill, to be transformed into beautiful women
02:28 - Beauty and ageing
02:44 - Alchemy and the Ripley Scroll
03:25 - What would Barbie look like if she was life size?
03:39 - Beauty as a moral duty, pseudomorality and Heather Widdows
05:40 - Renaissance beauty ingredients
06:07 - Beauty and social media
06:35 - Sleeping Hermaphroditus
07:22 - Hopeful works in The Cult of Beauty
08:25: What permissible beauty means to Abigail Thorn
08:40 - Conclusion
#TheCultOfBeauty #WellcomeCollection
Music: Nkisi, Lament II (instrumental)
Artwork credits:
Bust of Queen Nefertiti, originally c. 1351–34 BCE, Clarke and Davies, 1912–28 CE (reproduction), Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group
Husbands bringing their ugly wives to a windmill, to be transformed into beautiful women, Paulus Fürst c.1650, Wellcome Collection
Wax vanitas depicting life and death, modelled on Queen Elizabeth I, 1700s, Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group
Ripley Scroll, Unknown maker, after George Ripley, c. 1600, Wellcome Collection
Lifesize Barbie and Oriol, Adel Rootstein Ltd., 2009, Stiftung Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden. Social media: instagram.com/dhmdresden
'It makes no sense to be beautiful if no one is ugly', 2023, by Makeupbrutalism, commissioned by Wellcome Collection. Social media: instagram.com/makeupbrutalism
2 Reasons You’re Tired All the Time, Juno Calypso, 2013, Courtesy of the artist and T J Boulting and Slendertone II, Juno Calypso, 2015, Courtesy of the artist and T J Boulting. Social media: instagram.com/junocalypso
Beauty Sensorium, 2023, Renaissance Goo x Baum & Leahy, commissioned by Wellcome Collection. instagram.com/baumleahy and instagram.com/@profjillburke
‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, Beauty unravelled in the virtual scroll’, Xcessive Aesthetics, 2023
Sleeping Hermaphroditus, 2nd century CE (original), Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group
‘Perhaps We are all Fictions in the Eye of the Beholder’, Xu Yang, 2021, Courtesy of the artist. Social media: instagram.com/_xu.yang_
Permissible Beauty, 2022, © RCMG / Soup Co [film stills] / © Robert Taylor [production stills] / Reproduced with permission of RCMG, University of Leicester/ Soup Co. [new photography] instagram.com/permissiblebeauty
(Almost) all of my dead mother’s beautiful things, Narcissister, 2023, Commissioned by Wellcome Collection
Find us on Facebook: / facebook.com/wellcomecollection
See us on Instagram: / instagram.com/wellcomecollection
Follow us on Twitter: / twitter.com/explorewellcome
Follow us on Threads: / threads.net/wellcomecollection
