Ozzy Osborne. Working Class Hero seems more akin to a celebration of a local hero than an informative exhibition. As someone with basically no knowledge of Ozzy and Black Sabbath, I saw very little interpretation that should keep me engaged. The approach seems to be similar to how the British Museum approaches its exhibitions. Little focus on interpretation with a maximum focus on the displays.
Aside from the art displays, the Ozzy Osbourne exhibit is the first one that any visitors to Birmingham Museum will experience. Space is limited in this exhibition, however the gallery has been crammed with objects, leaving very little empty space.
There is only one piece of proper ‘interpretation’ in this exhibition and that is the panel seen on the photograph above. The text itself is quite good, and gives a nice overview of Ozzy’s life and impact on the music scene, and Birmingham itself. Unfortunately, because this is the only proper text panel, I was left wanting more.
The displays here are very impressive and showcase just how incredible Ozzy’s achievements are. Countless platinum records are on display along with many of his awards. Following the left wall, the exhibit is even in a chronological order of sorts, with a short story of his early life starting on the left wall. It ends with the announcement of the back to the beginning concert of Black Sabbath that played on the 7th of July just two weeks before his death.
The main shortfall of this exhibit is the lack of interpretation, pictured above is a repeat of the text panel seen earlier. This is a confusing decision to me as the museum clearly identified another good location for a large text panel and instead of adding some more details about Ozzy’s life, they decided to put the exact same panel down. This benefits no one, die-hard Ozzy fans will have easily been willing to read more interpretation about one of their idols, and people like me who are open to learning more about someone they knew very little about, will leave the exhibition knowing little more than they did going into it. As well as this, the museum itself will not benefit as people will spend less time in this exhibit, and so less time in the museum as a whole.
There are smaller panels like the one seen attached to this photograph of an Ozzy banner at Villa Park. They do provide some nice information about Ozzy, however, there are not enough of them to warrant an extra amount of attention from visitors. The most impressive displays are the ones of Ozzy’s platinum records and countless awards, and unfortunately there is almost no text about them at all. This is where the inclusion of a duplicate text panel lets the exhibition down. A clear lack of interpretation makes this tightly packed exhibit a five minute experience at a push.
Located near the museum but not tied to the exhibit itself, these panels give a good insight into Black Sabbaths impact on the music world. However, they cannot be counted as being part of the exhibit and will not factor into the final score.
I feel that including more interpretation similar to that seen in the above photographs would have made the Ozzy Osbourne exhibit more memorable for visitors. It seems strange that this exhibition was made and published whilst Ozzy was alive yet there are very few direct quotes from the man himself. Perhaps he did not wish to provide quotes for the exhibition, and only wanted to provide trophies and records. Whatever the case, the Ozzy Osbourne exhibit is undoubtedly a missed opportunity in capturing the importance of Ozzy to the city of Birmingham and the music world as a whole. I would argue that the above panels do more in this respect by actually explaining the importance of Ozzy and Black Sabbath’s musical impact on the world.
My final score is: 5.5/10
There is much to like about this exhibit, and as someone who went into the exhibit with almost no knowledge of Ozzy, i definitely gained an appreciation for him and his musical impact. Despite this, however, I left feeling there was more to be uncovered about him and his life, and the lack of interpretation contributes heavily to this.
My favourite part of the exhibition is the Birmingham walk of stars stone, which is next to a quote from Ozzy saying he is more proud of this stone than his one in Hollywood. This is a nice part of the exhibit and sums up Ozzy’s love for his home town perfectly.
Presentation 1/1
The presentation of the exhibit itself is undeniably good, It is clear the second you climb the museum steps that the Ozzy Osbourne exhibit is the first one you will see.
Displays 3/3
Clearly the weakness of this exhibit is not in the displays. What they have collected is a fantastic display of the accolades and achievements Ozzy had throughout his life and is from Ozzy’s personal collection.
Interpretation 1.5/6
The lack of proper interpretation really lets this exhibit down. The panels with text on them are interesting, however there just aren’t enough of them to be considered good. Despite my focus on interpretation aimed towards children, they are not the target audience for an exhibit on a singer who gained prominence over 50 years ago and so I have not marked this score down too much because of it.
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