You can find out more--and get directions to Observatory--by clicking here.
Shrinking and Other Acts of Sabotage
An illustrated lecture with Petra Lange-Berndt, University College London
Date: Thursday, July 28th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid AnatomyTaxidermy is quite literally the incarnation of trophy culture; It is no coincidence that the 19th Century craze for taxidermy coincided with the emergence of the biological sciences, which were, themselves, strongly tied to colonial interests of exploration, exploitation, classification, and reorganization of the world.
Today, this violent story -- as well as the bulk of 19th Century decorative taxidermy, such as heads on shields, armchairs made out of whole bears, elephant footstools or lamp bases adorned with birds of paradise -- are largely absent from public collections and their institutionalized narratives. Also problematic for the serious student of the medium is that, like art conservators or the editors of texts, taxidermists are only successful if there is no visible trace of their work left in the final product.
Tonight's presentation by Petra Lange-Berndt, author of Animal Art: Specimens in Modern and Contemporary Art Practices, 1850-2000, will chase the stories that are woven into the textures of taxidermy by focusing on the fabrication of the nature/cultures in question, and by asking such questions as what kind of politics are attached to these stilled lifes? And how have the power relations encountered in public natural history collections been challenged by modern and contemporary artists?
Petra Lange-Berndt is a lecturer at the Department of History of Art, University College of London. She has published a book in German on Animal Art: Specimens in Modern and Contemporary Art Practices, 1850-2000 (Silke Schreiber, 2009) and just organised a conference on "Taxidermy and Colonial Practice" at the Natural History Museum, London. She likes all kinds of unpopular arts and B-cultures and was co-curator of an exhibition in three parts on "Sigmar Polke: We Petty Bourgeois! The 1970s" at the Kunsthalle in Hamburg (2009-10); her new research is concerned with artists' colonies and communes.
Photo: Photo from Natural History Museum of Nantes (France), by Julie N. Hascoët
Living Dolls: The Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum
A live automata demonstration and illustrated lecture by Jere Ryder, Conservator of the Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum
Date: Friday, July 29th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid AnatomyThe Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey is one of the finest collections of automata--or moving mechanical toys popular in the 18th Century and 19th Centuries--in the world. Compiled over 50 years by heir to the Guinness beer fortune Murtogh D. Guinness (1913-2002), the collection features scores of immaculately preserved historic automata--many of them produced in 19th Century France--with subjects ranging from snake charmers to magicians, singing birds to anthropomorphic monkeys, Cleopatra in her death throes to a waltz-playing Mephistopheles; it also includes a number of mechanical musical instruments and a variety of programmed media ranging from player piano rolls to pinned cylinders.
Earlier this year, Observatory brought a group to visit this collection in person; for those of you who were unable to join us--or who are hungry more!--we are bringing the automata closer to home. Tonight, we invite you to join Jere Ryder, Conservator of the Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum, for a live demonstration of antique automata drawn from both the Guinness Collection and his own personal collection. Mr. Ryder will detail the history of these bewitching toys with an illustrated lecture on their history, show an introductory video, and demonstrate and describe the mechanics that bring them to life.
Bio: As Conservator of the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata, Jere Ryder brings a lifetime of involvement within this specialized field. A keen interest developed after being introduced to them by collector parents, whom Mr. Guinness had encountered in the 1950s. He became a family friend, and served as mentor and inspiration for later study within the field. With no specialized teaching institutions dedicated to this particular realm, it was Jere's father, Hughes M. Ryder, who introduced he and his brother to major European families, collections and related museums, assisting his ability to enter into studies/apprenticeships to surviving, established field masters, modern manufacturers and successors of original firms dating to as early as 1800. Throughout junior high and high school he received objects for repair from regional dealers and distributors. He and his brother Stephen created a business partnership in 1973 and since have repaired, restored, appraised and advised for some of the finest collections, acquiring objects on behalf of state and privately-owned museums worldwide, and are internationally renowned for research projects and the ability to source rare instruments offering new paths of study.
Image: “Mechanical Singing Bird Jardiniere,” made by the firm of Bontems, Paris, France, circa 1880 & recently restored
Monday, July 25, 2011
Morbid Anatomy Presents This Week at Observatory: Taxidermy and Antique Automata Live and in Person!
Amsterdam-Based Museum Vrolik Closed for Redesign; July 29th Last Day to Visit Before it Closes!
This just in from my friend Laurens De Rooy, curator of the fantastic Amsterdam-based Museum Vrolik, specimens of which are pictured above:
Museum Vrolik to close for ten monthsIf this museum and/or the photos above are of interest, make sure to check out the lavishly illustrated publication Forces of Form:The Vrolik Museum which includes these images and more; you can ind out more--or order a copy of your very own!--by clicking here.
Following in the footsteps of other top museums in Amsterdam, the Vrolik Museum will close for refurbishment and redesign from August 2011 to May 2012. The ten-month overhaul of the anatomy museum of the Academic Medical Centre aims to make the unique collection more appealing to a broader public. The 29th of July will be the last opportunity to visit the museum before it closes.
Museum Vrolik has been one of the AMC’s main attractions since 1984. Its collection includes items that are hundreds of years old, with more than ten thousand anatomical specimens in preservative, human and animal skeletons and skulls, and anatomical models and reconstructions. One of the museum’s treasures is the so-called Hovius display case, an 18th-century case full of bones and skulls ravaged by disease collected by physician Jacob Hovius. Of great scientific importance is the collection of congenital defects, including Siamese twins, cyclops and sirens.
An inspiring environment for all with an interest in disease, health, and the human body
With students of medicine and specialists the museum’s original target group, visitors without a medical background would often find the museum’s layout dated or even a little haphazard. Following its refurbishment, the museum should attract a much broader public, and serve as an easily accessible and inspiring learning environment for all with an interest in disease, health and the human body.
The main exhibition will feature the human body with all of its normalities and abnormalities, but the museum will also look into the history of its many different collections, honouring its original founders. The museum was named after Amsterdam professors Gerardus Vrolik (1775-1859) and his son Willem Vrolik (1801-1863), both anatomists and collectors. After their deaths, the Vrolik collection was expanded by other Amsterdam professors of anatomy.
The best exhibits now on show at the Special Collections UvA
During the closure of the museum a number of the museum’s top exhibits will be temporarily on display at the Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam (located at Oude Turfmarkt) which will host the exhibition ‘the discovery of man’ from 27 September 2011 to 15 January 2012. Together with Museum Vrolik, the Special Collections will exhibit anatomy atlases and specimens and explore how the dissection of the human body has changed man's view of himself. For further information, go to www.bijzonderecollecties.uva.nl.
Museum Vrolik
Academisch Medisch Centrum
Meibergdreef 15, J0-130 (Medical Faculty)
Open Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Admission free
www.amc.nl/vrolik
Images:
- Part of a face, with the eye, eyelids and eyebrows (Vrolik collection); Photo by Hans van den Bogaard (all rights reserved)
- New-born conjoined twins , linked at the chest (thoracopagus) (Vrolik collection); Photo by Hans van den Bogaard (all rights reserved)
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Laugh Getter, "Has a Wonderful Way with the Ladies," 1924
I especially like that this form includes space to enter the perpetrator's "Bertillon Measurements."
Via Public School. Thanks, Mike Lewi, for alerting me.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The 51 Preserved Dogs of Castle Bitov, Czech Republic
They can sit and stay – and are excellent at playing dead – but this room full of obedient dogs will never go walkies again. The odd-ball collection of 51 stuffed dogs is the star attraction at the picturesque Castle Bitov in the Czech Republic.You can read the whole entire story--from which the above images were drawn--by clicking here. Click on images to see much larger, more detailed version.
The castle’s last owner, the ever-so-slightly eccentric Baron Georg Haas, was an animal lover – to say the least. He was the proud owner of thousands of animals – including a lioness called Mietzi-Mausi, with whom it is said he enjoyed sharing lunch every day.
But his favourite style of four-legged friend was the humble canine, and he eventually had more than 200 in the castle grounds. It means the castle might well have been the hardest building to sneak into in the 1940s – certainly the hardest to walk around without looking down.
When the playful pets passed away, the baron buried the majority of them – their final resting places can still be seen in several cemeteries in the castle grounds, each with a wooden cross and small metal plate bearing their name.
But, for a select few, the baron had loftier plans – and the handiwork of the local taxidermist is still being enjoyed today. It’s clear that the baron did not play favourites. Spaniels, terriers, poodles, boxers – hounds of every shape and size – are included in the collection...
Georg Haas was as eccentric an aristocrat as they come. But he was also ahead of his time, designing a magnificent zoo for his animals, with terrariums, bird cages, and various paddocks that he filled with exotic creatures from around the world.
--"The perfectly preserved pooches of Castle Bitov," The Daily Mail, July 19th 2011
Thanks to Eleanor Crook for bringing this to my attention!
Zoe Beloff at The Great Coney Island Spectacularium, Opening Reception, This Friday, July 22
Opening reception for Zoe Beloff's "Four Hysterical Dramas" at The Great Coney Island Spectacularium
Date: This Friday, July 22nd
Time: 7-10 PM
Where: The Coney Island Museum, 1208 Surf Avenue
Admission: Free
This Friday, Morbid Anatomy and The Great Coney Island Spectacularium cordially invite you to an opening reception to celebrate the launch of our short-term exhibition of Zoe Beloff's installation "Four Hysterical Dramas" This exhibition will be on view at The Spectacularium from July 22nd until August 20th.
More on the exhibition following; hope to see you there!
Four Hysterical DramasYou can find out more about the event here and more about Zoe and her work here.
Beloff will present four miniature theaters housing depictions of actual hysterics filmed by doctors in Belgium, Romania, and the United States. Updating a Victorian stage trick called "Pepper's Ghost", Beloff has transformed these patients into ghostly figures performing an endless loop of madness within the space of each diorama. Beloff was inspired by several remarkable developments at the end of the 19th century: the discovery of the unconscious by psychotherapists, doctors' emerging practice of filming their hysterical patients with motion picture cameras, and the public's fascination with madness which manifested itself in the emotive, hysterical behavior of actors in Parisian cabarets.
Monday, July 18, 2011
This Week and Next at Observatory: Carmina Burana, Mermaids and the People Who Love Them, The Politics of Taxidermy & Automatons, Live and in Person!
Hope to see you at one or more of these fantastic events!
SCREENING: “Theatrum Mundi” Production of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana”
Date: Monday, July 18th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Presented by Morbid AnatomyCarl Orff's Carmina Burana--full title Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanæ cantoribus et choris cantandæ comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis ("Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magic images")--was written not in the depths of the dark ages as one might assume, but in Nazi-era Germany, premiering to great acclaim in 1937 Frankfurt. The piece sets to music a selection of poems drawn from a subversive medieval manuscript of the same name which had been discovered at a Bavarian Benedictine monastery in 1803; primary themes include the popular medieval trope of the Wheel of Fortune (a literal example of which controls much of the action), the ephemerality of life, and the allure and peril of drinking, gambling, gluttony and lust.
Carl Orff 's original conception for Carmina Burana incorporated orchestral music, acting, dance, masks, costumes, and sets in a kind of "Theatrum Mundi" in which music, movement, and speech were equal and essential pieces of the whole. The few contemporary performances that have staged the production according to Orff's original conception have a fascinatingly uncanny, unsettling, Hieronymus Bosch-ian feel, as if something deep in our collective past were attempting to speak to us in a symbolic language beyond the reach of reason. By turns epic, bawdy, surrealistic, monstrous, bizarre and sublime--and always utterly compelling--these are very special productions not to be missed.
Tonight, join us for a screening of just such a production; The piece is performed in the original Latin but includes English subtitles, and will be broadcast over our astoundingly great new PA system.
Image: Codex Buranus (Carmina Burana) Wheel of Fortune (Schicksalsrad) Source: Wikipedia
Sirens & Society: Postmodern Mermaidia
A Screening & Panel Discussion featuring Prof. Amy Herzog, Mica Scalin, Ilise “The Lady Aye” Carter and Bambi the Mermaid
Date: Thursday, July 21st
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid AnatomyForget vampires, werewolves, and zombies! All across America--at least according to USA Today's Carol Memmot, who recently documented the explosion of high-profile books, blogs and movies devoted to modern "mermadia"--mermaids are emerging as "the next big thing.
Tonight's screening and panel discussion will investigate the new wave of mermaid imagery and lifestyle being created by individual artists and the culture industry at large. We will begin with a preview screening of the new documentary "Mermaids of New York," followed by a panel discussion featuring professor Amy Herzog, filmmakers Mica Scalin and Ilise “The Lady Aye” Carter, and practicing mermaid Bambi the Mermaid. The aim of the evening is to investigate the explosion of interest in these elusive mythical creatures expressing archetypes ranging from bright childhood whimsy to dark sexual intrigue, with an eye to discovering why these creatures? And why now?
Amy Herzog is associate professor of film studies at Queens College and The Graduate Center, CUNY. She is the author of Dreams of Difference, Songs of the Same: The Image of Time in Musical Film, which includes an extended study of Esther Williams and "water-based" musical cinema. She recently presented a new project on the history, aesthetics, and politics of underwater amusements and roadside attractions at this year’s Congress of Curious Peoples at Coney Island.
Filmmakers Mica Scalin and Ilise “The Lady Aye” Carter, the creators of the ongoing documentary video project "Mermaids of New York," which follows some of the truly amazing, beautiful and genuine mermaids that live on and around the island of Manhattan by weaving together anecdotes from some of New York's most renowned mermaids as a jumping off point to explore the connections between New York City, the individuals who choose to call it home and the water which surrounds it.
Bambi the Mermaid is a professional mermaid performer, acclaimed photographer and organizer of Coney Island USA’s Mermaid Parade whose art deals with pop culture, Americana and the strange places beauty and perversion meet.
Photo: Jason Falchook
Inaugural Event of the New Atlantis 2020 Series with Special Musical Guest Andy J. Forest
A Lecture, Performance, and Party hosted by John Swenson, author of New Atlantis: Musicians Battle for the Survival of New Orleans
Date: Saturday, July 23rd
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Night One of the New Atlantis 2020 Series
•• Books will be available for sale and signing"In New Orleans, it was the culture of the city—its musicians, its second-liners and Mardi Gras Indians, its chefs and trumpeters and sissy bounce rappers—who asserted for the future more than any political leadership or economic imperative. It was the refusal of the artists to let go of the idea of New Orleans that saved the city. NEW ATLANTIS tells this remarkable story and does so clearly, with considerable detail and affection."
—David Simon, Producer of HBO's TremeNew Orleans is under siege from a lethal combination of natural and man-made disasters. The effects of the flood following hurricane Katrina in 2005 are still being felt throughout New Orleans, while the rapid destruction of the south Louisiana wetlands that protect the city from hurricane surges brings the threat of future inundations.
Musicians have been in the forefront of efforts to educate the public about how to combat this threat even before Katrina; they have also led the economic recovery of New Orleans after the flood by returning quickly to restore the city's cultural identity. Award winning author John Swenson's book New Atlantis: Musicians Battle for the Survival of New Orleans (Oxford University Press) details the struggle musicians have undertaken to rebuild New Orleans and speak out for its future.
Tonight, join us for the inaugural event of the new Observatory series New Atlantis 2020; this series, curated and moderated by John Swenson, will feature live performances, readings and discussions that will explore the relationship between the musicians of New Orleans and the rebuilding of the city after Katrina. Tonight's event will will begin with a lavishly illustrated introductory lecture by Swenson, introducing us to the key themes and characters of the book. Next, award-winning New Orleans based musician and songwriter Andy J. Forest--who figures prominently in the book--will perform live at Observatory on guitar and harmonica. Following this performance, Swenson will moderate a Q and A with the musician, after which he will DJ a rich variety of New Orleans music while we enjoy some beer and wine.
John Swenson has been writing about popular music since 1967. He edited the award-winning website jazze.com for Knit Media and has worked as an editor at Crawdaddy, Rolling Stone, Circus, Rock World, OffBeat magazine and been published in virtually every popular music magazine of note over that time. He was a syndicated music columnist for more than 20 years at United Press International and Reuters. Swenson has written 14 published books including biographies of Bill Haley, the Who, Stevie Wonder and the Eagles and co-edited the original Rolling Stone Record Guide with Dave Marsh. He is also the editor of The Rolling Stone Jazz and Blues Album Guide. In another role Swenson is a veteran sports writer who covered the New York Rangers for 30 years, writing pieces for outlets from Rolling Stone to the Associated Press. Swenson is also a veteran horseracing columnist and handicapper who covered the New York racing scene as a columnist for the New York Post and the New Orleans Fair Grounds meet for The Daily Racing Form. His profile on jockey Steve Cauthen, "Rise To Stardom, Fall From Grace" in Spur magazine was nominated for an Eclipse Award.
Swenson's account of musicians returning to New Orleans after Katrina, The Bands Played On, appeared in Da Capo's Best Music Writing 2007. His Every Accordionist a King won the 2008 Best Entertainment Feature award from the Press Club of New Orleans. Swenson's latest book, New Atlantis chronicles how musicians battled to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Shrinking and Other Acts of Sabotage
An illustrated lecture with Petra Lange-Berndt, University College London
Date: Thursday, July 28th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid AnatomyTaxidermy is quite literally the incarnation of trophy culture; It is no coincidence that the 19th Century craze for taxidermy coincided with the emergence of the biological sciences, which were, themselves, strongly tied to colonial interests of exploration, exploitation, classification, and reorganization of the world.
Today, this violent story -- as well as the bulk of 19th Century decorative taxidermy, such as heads on shields, armchairs made out of whole bears, elephant footstools or lamp bases adorned with birds of paradise -- are largely absent from public collections and their institutionalized narratives. Also problematic for the serious student of the medium is that, like art conservators or the editors of texts, taxidermists are only successful if there is no visible trace of their work left in the final product.
Tonight's presentation by Petra Lange-Berndt, author of Animal Art: Specimens in Modern and Contemporary Art Practices, 1850-2000, will chase the stories that are woven into the textures of taxidermy by focusing on the fabrication of the nature/cultures in question, and by asking such questions as what kind of politics are attached to these stilled lifes? And how have the power relations encountered in public natural history collections been challenged by modern and contemporary artists?
Petra Lange-Berndt is a lecturer at the Department of History of Art, University College of London. She has published a book in German on Animal Art: Specimens in Modern and Contemporary Art Practices, 1850-2000 (Silke Schreiber, 2009) and just organised a conference on "Taxidermy and Colonial Practice" at the Natural History Museum, London. She likes all kinds of unpopular arts and B-cultures and was co-curator of an exhibition in three parts on "Sigmar Polke: We Petty Bourgeois! The 1970s" at the Kunsthalle in Hamburg (2009-10); her new research is concerned with artists' colonies and communes.
Image: Photo from Natural History Museum of Nantes (France), by Julie N. Hascoët
Living Dolls: The Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum
A live automata demonstration and illustrated lecture by Jere Ryder, Conservator of the Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum
Date: Friday, July 29th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid AnatomyThe Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey is one of the finest collections of automata--or moving mechanical toys popular in the 18th Century and 19th Centuries--in the world. Compiled over 50 years by heir to the Guinness beer fortune Murtogh D. Guinness (1913-2002), the collection features scores of immaculately preserved historic automata--many of them produced in 19th Century France--with subjects ranging from snake charmers to magicians, singing birds to anthropomorphic monkeys, Cleopatra in her death throes to a waltz-playing Mephistopheles; it also includes a number of mechanical musical instruments and a variety of programmed media ranging from player piano rolls to pinned cylinders.
Earlier this year, Observatory brought a group to visit this collection in person; for those of you who were unable to join us--or who are hungry more!--we are bringing the automata closer to home. Tonight, we invite you to join Jere Ryder, Conservator of the Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata at the Morris Museum, for a live demonstration of antique automata drawn from both the Guinness Collection and his own personal collection. Mr. Ryder will detail the history of these bewitching toys with an illustrated lecture on their history, show an introductory video, and demonstrate and describe the mechanics that bring them to life.
Bio: As Conservator of the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata, Jere Ryder brings a lifetime of involvement within this specialized field. A keen interest developed after being introduced to them by collector parents, whom Mr. Guinness had encountered in the 1950s. He became a family friend, and served as mentor and inspiration for later study within the field. With no specialized teaching institutions dedicated to this particular realm, it was Jere's father, Hughes M. Ryder, who introduced he and his brother to major European families, collections and related museums, assisting his ability to enter into studies/apprenticeships to surviving, established field masters, modern manufacturers and successors of original firms dating to as early as 1800. Throughout junior high and high school he received objects for repair from regional dealers and distributors. He and his brother Stephen created a business partnership in 1973 and since have repaired, restored, appraised and advised for some of the finest collections, acquiring objects on behalf of state and privately-owned museums worldwide, and are internationally renowned for research projects and the ability to source rare instruments offering new paths of study.
To find out more about these events--and to keep up to date on new ones--click here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
"What We leave Out: The Art of Science Fiction Writing," 92YTribeca, Tomorrow Night
Just found out about this pretty great looking panel discussion featuring former Observatory lecturer Carl Schoonover and Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder auther Lawrence Wechsler:
What We leave Out: The Art of Science Fiction WritingThe panel takes place tomorrow night! You can purchase tickets here.
Date: Mon, Jul 18, 2011, 7 pm
Venue: 92YTribeca MAINSTAGE
Location: 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson Street
Event Code: TS12D11185
Scientific experimentation is as much about what we choose not to study as what we do—researchers must always ignore some elements of a problem to focus on others.
Similarly, writing is a process of taking out as much as putting in, of deciding what we can include and what we must leave untouched. Writers who work with the future tend to care most about a particular aspect—about changes in technology, society or the environment.
Panelists Anna North, Carl Schoonover and Lawrence Wechsler discuss the ways writers fashion a future by whittling down an infinity of possibilities until that which most interests them remains. Join them as they shed light on the processes of writing and experimentation and how the eventual results are only part of the story.
Thanks, Carl, for sending this--and the photograph--along.
Image; Credit: Thomas Deerinck and Mark Ellisman, 2008.
This image depiects non-neuronal cells in the cerebellum, an area in the back of the brain that play a role in motor coordination. These cells, called glia (yellow), support the activity of neurons, providing nutrients and oxygen. They have been illuminated using a highly, specific antibody-based staining technique, leaving everything else--including the neurons they nurture--invisible in the background (blue).
Friday, July 15, 2011
Special Alert: The Morbid Anatomy Library Will Be Closed This Saturday!
Sorry to announce that the Morbid Anatomy Library will be closed this Saturday, due to a Morbid Anatomy off-site field trip.
My sincere apologies! And regular hours will resume on Sunday.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
"Get stuffed: The Disturbing Animals Created when Taxidermy Goes Wrong," The Daily Mail, 2011
The Daily Mail's article "Get stuffed: The disturbing animals created when taxidermy goes wrong"--which profiles the activity of the Facebook group "Badly Stuffed Animals"--has been rapidly making the internet rounds. In an oddly proud moment, I found that the article showcases one of the more disturbing pieces from The Niagara Falls Museum that we have on show as part of The Great Coney Island Spectacularium. Can you guess which one it is? Hint: it is unable to stand on its own two legs...
To see this piece in person, come down to The Great Coney Island Spectacularium! You can read the article and see the full collection by clicking here.
Thanks to Eleanor Crook and Matt Haber for sending this my way.
All images from the article.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
RIP Bill Jamieson
Much has been said about the sad and sudden passing of epic collector and friend to many (including myself!) Billy Jamieson. I am not sure I have anything to add to this often eloquent outpouring of disbelief and grief, except to add note of my own sadness, and to take this moment to mark his passing.
James Taylor put it best, perhaps, on his website "Shocked and Amazed":
Hearing of Bill Jamieson’s death yesterday was about as shocking an occurrence as can be imagined in this business. Still a young man, truly, and a man whose importance to collecting and “spreading the word” had yet to be fully felt, his passing leaves a hole at least 10X larger in the business than the enormous hoard of attractions he leaves behind...My own experience with Billy was marked by kindness, generosity of spirit, and a sharp and roving intelligence. He loaned us a variety of artifacts from The Niagara Falls Museum--a circa 1827 dime museum whose entire contents he had purchased in 1999--for use in The Coney Island Spectacularium. He also joined us at Coney Island a few weeks back, where we enjoyed the pleasure of his company on the judges stand of The Mermaid Parade followed by a memorable and inspiring lecture in the museum.
I still cannot quite believe he is really dead. He was one of the most full-of-life and inspiring men it has ever been my pleasure to meet.
Rest in peace, Billy. You are--and will continue to be--sorely missed.
Photo sourced from Colorslab.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
THIS SATURDAY! Brains in Jars, Old Libraries, and Underground Crypts in New Haven, Connecticut
We have a few more slots open for our awesome all day field trip this Saturday. See following for details, and email me at morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com if you'd like to come along!
FIELD TRIP: Day of Brains in Jars, Old Libraries, and Underground Crypts in New Haven, Connecticut
A chartered bus field trip to New Haven, Connecticut with guided tours of The Cushing Brain Collection, The Institute Library, and The Center Church Crypt and an unguided visit to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Date: This Saturday, July 16th
Time: 10:00 AM- 7 PM
Admission: $60
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
*** MUST RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com
This Saturday, July 16th join Observatory and Morbid Anatomy for a special field trip to New Haven, Connecticut. Our first stop will be the amazing Cushing Collection, with its over 500 human brains in glass jars and haunting pre- and post-operative photographs amassed by "father of modern neurosurgery" Dr. Harvey Cushing. We will be introduced to this collection-- newly open to the public--via a guided tour by Terry Dagradi, curator of the collection. Our next stop will be the historic and lovely Institute Library (founded 1826), Connecticut's oldest living independent literary institution and one of the last remaining membership libraries in North America, where director Will Baker will give us a tour followed by an opportunity for unguided exploration and lunch. Next, we will be treated to a special after-hours tour of the Center Church Crypt, an underground cemetery featuring 137 grave stones of New Haven's founders and earliest citizens going back to 1687. Our final stop will be an unguided visit to the incredible Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library before hopping on the bus for our return home.
Trip Details: The $60 event cost of this event includes round trip transportation on a special chartered bus from Observatory to New Haven and back again as well as tour costs. Please bring your lunch, which we will have an opportunity to eat at our second stop. The bus will pick up and drop off in front of the 543 Union Street (at Nevins Street) entrance to Observatory. Pick up is 10:00 AM sharp and drop off approximately 7:00 PM depending on traffic.
There is a limit for this trip, so please RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com if interested.
Images: Of and from The Cushing Collection as featured in The New York Times.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
The Biologically-Inspired Glass Work of Danish Artist Steffan Dam
Wow. I have just come across the exquisite, biologically-inspired glass work of Danish artist Steffan Dam. The work--organized into series titled "Flower Blocks," "Specimen Blocks," "Fossils" and "Marine Biology--reminds me quite a bit of the work of revered natural history artists Ernst Heackel and Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka.
Above are just a few of my favorite pieces; I highly encourage you to visit the website to see the full collection by clicking here; you can also download a PDF catalog of his work by clicking here.
Via Wunderkammer.
Cabinet Cards / Storydress II, Albumen Print Photographs of Life-size Paper Mache and Plaster Sculpture, Christine Elfman, 2008
Cabinet Cards / Storydress III really, really love this piece--which uses as its base a life-size paper mache and plaster sculpture!--and encourage you to visit Christine Elfman's website and click on "view close up here" to appreciate it fully. Or click on image to see a pleasing larger version.
albumen prints from wet-plate collodion negatives
4.25 x 6.5 inches, series of 5 mounted on cabinet cards
6.5 x 8.5 inches, series of 10 framed
2008
Storydress II is a series of photographs of a life-size paper mache and plaster sculpture. The dress is made of paper mache stories that I recorded of my great-grandmother’s autobiographical reminiscences. Each photograph contains legible words. The sculpture was photographed with the wet-plate collodion negative process, printed on handmade gold-toned Albumen paper, and burnished onto antique Cabinet Card mounts. For exhibition the cabinet card photographs are displayed using an antique wooden Graphoscope (magnifying device) and shelf.
Finding unknown relatives in my family photograph collection, and noticing old photographs of anonymous people in antique stores, I was taken by how many people were forgotten regardless of photography’s intention to “Secure the shadow, ‘ere the substance fades away.” The older the picture, the more forlorn the subject appeared to me. Holding their image, I was impressed with their absence. Storydress II tries to show this underlying subject of photographic portraiture. The 19th century cabinet card is turned inside out, revealing the presence of absence in a medium characterized by rigid detail and anonymity. The figure of reminiscence, cast in plaster, parallels the poetic immobility of the head clamp, used in early photography to prevent movement during long exposures, aptly defined by Barthes as “the corset of my imaginary existence”. The life size cast figure wears a paper mache dress made of family stories: recorded, torn up, and glued back together again. The tedious processes involved in making both the subject and photograph are offerings to time’s taking.
Via Foxes in Breeches.
Monday, July 4, 2011
"The Secret Museum: Collections as Muse," Artist Talk and Artifacts from the Stores, Natural History Museum, London, Thursday July 7
Hi all! Will be giving a free and open-to-the-public artist's talk augmented by artifacts drawn from the stores at the London Natural History Museum this Thursday at 2:30. Full details follow; hope very much to see you there!
The Secret Museum: Collections as Muse with artist Joanna EbensteinMore here.
Artist Talk with Artifacts from the Stores
Museum of Natural History, London, Attenborough Studio
Thursday July 7
2:30 PM
Ancient wood and glass cases, elaborate labels from centuries past, rows of dusty bell jars, atmospherically decayed specimens, the unintentionally surreal and sublime vistas of the Museum backstage... these are the kinds of things that intrigue and inspire New York artist Joanna Ebenstein. Today, join her for a look at some of her artwork engaging with these themes. Also on view will be a variety of rarely seen artifacts specially drawn for this talk from the Natural History Museum's extensive and astounding stores.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Special Alert: The Morbid Anatomy Library Will Be Closed This Weekend!
Sorry to announce that the Morbid Anatomy Library will be closed this weekend, due to our host gallery's closing.
My sincere apologies! And regular hours will resume next Saturday.
