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Glistening across an expansive wall of a fifth-floor wing in The Brooklyn Museum, the title of the institution’s latest exhibition is emblazoned in gold font: Solid Gold. The words serve as a bold proclamation. Like the text, many of the exhibition’s items gleam brightly within dimly lit and darkly painted rooms providing a radiant contrast to the moody space.

The exhibit features over 500 works, spanning art, design, fashion, film and history. Gold is explored as both material and color. It is emphasized as a communicator of status, and symbol of enlightenment, wealth, royalty and beauty. This symbolism of gold across cultures is a focal point of the exhibit, even extending to the galaxy. At the entryway, a video of the Voyager spacecraft greets visitors. From 1977, the video is significant for the inclusion of the Golden Record placed within each of the twin probes. They are discs with greetings and instructions intended for extraterrestrials. The curators of the exhibition, Matthew Yokobosky, Catherine Futter, Lisa Small and Imani Williford, offer viewers this initial macro view before illuminating gold’s significance within specific cultures and periods.

One of the most interesting aspects of the exhibit was the non-chronological way in which the works were presented. Another curatorial team might’ve chosen a sequential order to reveal its objects. But in many cases, this team behind Solid Gold chose a similar object across cultures to create throughlines. Selected accessories, like a specific Danish headpiece signifying status and an ornamental headpiece from Nazca in Peru, reveal comparable value placed on the precious metal across cultures.

A notable portion of the exhibit is devoted to fashion, specifically from couture houses. Visitors walk through seas of garments, accessories and jewelry from fashion houses, like Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Halston, Alaïa, Schiaparelli, and The Blonds, among others. Some of the exhibits first ensembles include a gold lame catsuit with elaborate beadwork and a gold python shift dress with 18K gold piping, both from The Blonds and paired with Christian Louboutin boots made from various materials. These contemporary pieces are displayed alongside ancient Egyptian jewelry, like a 3rd century coiled serpent ring.

The heavy focus on fashion conjures questions around the meanings we assign to this eye-catching element. Is gold deemed more permissible for extraction when used for objects of spiritual significance? Is it scrutinized as a frivolous choice when used for haute couture garments or fine accessories? Maybe, so. Still, fashion exhibitions allow visitors to interact with luxury garments in ways that would be impossible, otherwise. They inspire young, budding designers, and the rise in fashion exhibitions reflects the public’s interest in interacting with luxury, handcrafted garments. With a hefty percentage of objects devoted to fashion and Dior as a sponsor, the addition of a subtitle like, “Fashion & Beyond,” could assist in setting viewers’ expectations.

Objects extending outside the scope of fashion are plentiful. Furniture is presented, including gilded gold on a Steichen piano from the roaring twenties and an ornate centuries-old Peruvian bed frame. Japanese décor includes folding screens from the early 20th century and lacquered wares with gold accents from the 18th century. Ancient Egyptian funeral relics are on view where gold was used to assist the deceased in connecting with the process of rebirth in the afterlife. Similar in spiritual significance, hammered beads are shown from the Aztecs, where the word for gold, teocuitlatl, is translated to “excrement of the gods.” Textiles are shown, like a Palestinian veil decorated with gold coins from 1950 and gold-painted Indonesian fabric from around 1900. Ancient Jain and Christian texts use the color to signify spiritual significance, and religious iconography links gold and mysticism through Italian chalices, devotional triptychs and glistening staffs.

In creating a cultural throughline, the curators successfully draw our eye to something larger than the objects themselves – they created a web of connectivity across the globe. The entire exhibit serves as an anthropological study, revealing the interwoven history between gold and humans. This emphasis was not what I expected from Solid Gold. Also, this precious metal is controversial, and I was curious to see how topics of unethical extraction and abuse of labor would be addressed.

While a portion of fashion is exhibited first, the labor injustice and environmental ruin surrounding gold’s acquisition are early focal points. While footage from Cleopatra is projected featuring Elizabeth Taylor wearing a gold cape fashioned like phoenix wings in the beginning of the exhibit, in this portion, footage is projected of a 1917 documentary produced by Thomas Edison depicting a tube mill in South Africa. The black-and-white footage of miners shoveling has a sobering effect following a part of the exhibit featuring some couture items.

The video footage segues to a charcoal illustrated film of working conditions in gold mills. This work is created by William Kentridge, a South African artist, in 1991 titled, Mine. Edison’s film was used as a marketing tool for future investment, revealing a specific extraction process which would lead to the area’s further industrialization and wealth disparity. But Kentridge’s film gives a behind-the-scenes vantage point into the oppressive apartheid system. We view tightly aligned bunk beds and close showering quarters with tired-looking workers filing in line. This scene pans to a corporate figure experiencing a dissimilar morning routine. In his plush surroundings, and in a surreal artistic move, the corporate figure pushes a coffee press downward. The press morphs into a drill propelling its way into the earth. This incessant puncturing is juxtaposed with a perpetually flowing receipt – signifying the devastation of the earth and assets accumulated by the mogul. Mine takes on new meaning – a literal mine as well as “a reference to the greed of the protagonist, who is based on a real-life mining magnate.”

The fluttering stills from the live footage communicate through their glitchy technology that this is an offense of the past. The black-and-white charcoal stills – though contemporary – maintain the same effect. The sense of the video being dated creates a false moral distance between viewers in the present and gold’s dark past. From the footage alone, it’s as though this extraction and devastation is not perpetuated in the present.

To address the present day, ten major mines – among hundreds throughout the globe – are listed with statistics, including gold extracted per year and percentage of the world’s production. A US-based mine in Nevada takes the lead with Uzbekistan, Russia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo included as well. A more significant present-day portrayal is lacking, and outside of a small graphic with extractive stats, the exhibit didn’t inform the public of its present-day toll. This could have been simply remedied through showing modern-day footage of any significant gold mining site.

The exhibit unfolds revealing Siren, an 18-karat gold sculpture of Kate Moss by Marc Quinn. It depicts the model in a challenging yoga pose with ankles overhead raising questions around reverence and irreverence in designing with this material. Quinn questions the meaning of the substance, sharing “Gold is a metal that humans have decided is one of the most valuable materials in the world, but… gold itself is a belief system – inherently no more valuable than any other metal.” In reference to its title, he continues that Siren is “an image of all the impossible dreams that lure people to wreck their lives on the rocky shore of reality.”

Toward the exhibition’s close, an interactive feature is incorporated where participants are encouraged to leave a note with pencil and paper responding to the prompt, “Gold is…” On the day of my visit, responses ranged from, “sexy on men,” “shiny!”, “You need that?!” and “the price of colonialism, greed and malice.” But a consumerist reflection shone brightest with the last note, where a visitor insured a “great deal” on his solid gold watch and provided a phone number.

This curatorial choice to merge ancient and modern objects highlights our fascination with gold across centuries and continents. The ability to witness this is an opportunity embedded in this exhibit. There is also an emphasis on a specific quality of the precious metal throughout: Gold is dual. Material and color. Exquisite and controversial. Ancient and modern. Overall, the exhibit succeeded in embracing the duality that is woven into its story.

This duality is directly shared through one memorable and mythological description. One of the first items exhibited is an Icarus Dress from Walter Van Berendonck. The foreboding sign accompanying the dress reads, “Gold, symbolizing both the brilliance and danger of the sun, represents the fine line between life and peril, ambition and downfall.” Van Beirendonck states, “I wanted to tell a [fashion] story which is about darkness, but also hope.”

Solid Gold is on view at The Brooklyn Museum through July 6, 2025.