Fending off the Reaper

In Britain, if misfortune or illness comes your way, you can always blame someone else to make you feel better. If you live in the Nicobar Islands, you can have a large wooden animal created to ward off the evil spirits which have caused the problem in the first place.

Living & Dying, the first exhibition in the new Wellcome Trust Gallery, explores the beliefs that underpin communities all over the world and how different cultures often have varied responses to life's challenges.

Pharmacopoeia's Cradle To Grave represents a western approach to health and well being. Tablets have been woven into two separate fabrics showing all the medication a man and woman may be prescribed during a lifetime. There are pills for contraception, hayfever or asthma, in every shape and colour. It's initially shocking to see life presented from this vantage point; a stark reminder of our dependence on medication and our own cultures' belief structure.

Vibrant carnival costumes worn in the Andes are contrasted with sculptures relating to the Mexican Day Of The Dead, by the Linares family, which hang menacingly above. At times the exhibition spreads itself thin, covering too many topics too generally, but Living & Dying's strength is to home in on core themes important to different cultures and present them in a contemporary way.

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