Morbid Anatomy Holiday Fair! Sicilian Sex Ghosts! Medieval Automata! Krumpus-themed Holiday Party with Ghoul-A-Go-Go! 3D Galore! Dark New York! Morbid Anatomy Presents at Observatory

Taxidermy, waxworks, beer, and deaccessioned artifacts from The Morbid Anatomy Library at next weekend's Morbid Anatomy Holiday Fair! Morbid Anatomy Birthday Party with "Sicilian Sex Ghosts" lecture by Empire of Death's Paul Koudounaris, music and artisinal cocktails by Friese Undine, and thematic baked goods by Rachel Rideout! Morbid Anatomy and Ghoul-a-Go-Go Krumpus-themed holiday party! Holiday edition of our popular anthropomorphic insect shadowbox class! Dark New York! Medieval Automata! 3D Galore!

These and many other delights await you as part of Morbid Anatomy Presents this month and beyond at Observatory; full details follow. Hope to see you there!

Morbid Anatomy and Observatory Holiday Fair

Holiday fair with multiple vendors serving your alternative holiday needs including taxidermy, waxworks, anthropomorphic insect tableaux, and deaccessioned books and artifacts from the Morbid Anatomy Library
Dates: Saturday, December 8 and Sunday, December 9
Time: Noon - 6:00 PM
Admission: Free
Beer courtesy of our sponsor Brooklyn Brewery

Please join us on December 8th and 9th for a holiday fair, presented in conjunction with partner space Proteus Gowanus. This is the perfect place to purchase unique, niche, and off-the-beaten-path gifts for those hard-to-please folks on your shopping list.This years iteration will feature the taxidermy of anthropomorphic mouse taxidermy class teacher Sue Jeiven; the artisinal wax works of artist Sigrid Sarda; the insect shadowboxes of Daisy Tainton; taxidermic curiosities by Katie Innamorato and Amber Jolliffe; photography and deaccessioned books and artifacts from the Morbid Anatomy Library, "Andean goodies" from Alastair Noble, all accompanied by music and beer provided by our sponsor Brooklyn Brewery.

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Sicilian Sex Ghosts AND Morbid Anatomy Birthday Party
An illustrated lecture and Slideshow by Empire of Death author Dr. Paul Koudounaris with Music and Cocktails by Friese Undine and thematic baked goods by Rachel Ridout
Date: Tuesday December 11
Time: 8:00
Admission: $12
Produced by Morbid Anatomy

Do you like sex? Do you like Death? Do you like Sicilians? Do you like Morbid Anatomy, alcohol, birthday parties, thematic cakes and music? If you answered yes to any of these questions, please join author/photographer of Empire of Death Dr. Paul Koudounaris, as he presents an in-depth lecture with full slideshow on the Sex Ghosts of the Palermo Catacombs for an evening's spectacular which will also serve as the birthday party for Morbid Anatomy's Joanna Ebenstein.

Over 400 years ago, the monks of Palermo's Capuchin monastery began mummifying their own brothers and prominent local citizens, and displaying their bodies in subterranean galleries. The result was one of the world's most haunted sites. But many of these ghosts were not content to simply roam the passageways rattling chains--death had apparently not quelled their sexual appetites, and with libidos in overdrive they took to the streets of the city to fulfill their lecherous needs. Dr. Koudounaris will explore this fascinating folklore in a uniquely bizarre lecture, illustrated with his own photographs of the mummies still preserved in Palermo.

Come for the lecture, and linger for the party, which will feature Music and Cocktails by Friese Undine and morbid baked goods by the lovely Rachel Ridout.

Dr. Paul Koudounaris holds a PhD in Art History (UCLA) and has taught classes at numerous universities and published in magazines throughout the world. He is the author of The Empire of Death, the first illustrated history of charnel houses and religious sanctuaries decorated with human bone. Named one of the ten best books of 2011 (London Evening Standard), it has garnered international attention for its combination of unique historical research and stunning photography.

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Mysteries in Depth: A 3-D Slideshow with 3-D Legend Gerald Marks
Date: Friday, December 14, 2012
Time: 8:00 PM  (Doors open at 7:00, there'll be refreshments and much to see))
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Exploring Mysteries has been a prominent feature in the work of artist Gerald Marks over the past four decades. Tonight, join this 3-D legend and former San Francisco Exploratorium artist in residence for a 3-D ode to the Nature of Vision. Seven “Chapters” of images will explore a wide range of topics...  Lost Art around the City, Aviation and Space, The JFK Assassination, People Lost in Devices, Liberty, Mysteries of Scale, and much more.

There will be a special segment featuring images of small specimens in 3-D, made using a desktop scanner. On January 5, Marks will be holding a Saturday workshop on this technique. More on that here.

Gerald Marks is an artist working along the border of art and science, specializing in stereoscopic 3-D since 1973. He may be best known for the 3-D videos he directed for The Rolling Stones during their Steel Wheels tour. He has taught at The Cooper Union, The New School for Social Research, and the School of Visual Arts, where he currently teaches Stereoscopic 3-D within the MFA program in Computer Art. He was artist in residence at San Francisco’s Exploratorium and a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Media Lab, where he worked with computer-generated holography. His Professor Pulfrich’s Universe installations are popular features in museums all over the world, including the Exploratorium, The N. Y. Hall of Science, and Sony ExploraScience in Beijing and Tokyo. He has done 3-D consulting, lecturing and design for scientific purposes for The American Museum of Natural History, the National Institutes of Health, and Discover Magazine. He has created a large variety of 3-D artwork for advertising, display, and pharmaceutical use, as well as broadcast organizations Fox and MTV. He has designed award winning projections and sets at the N.Y. Public Theater, SOHO Rep, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center and the Nashville Ballet, where he created stereoscopically projected sets. He created the 3-D mural in the 28th Street station of the #6 train in New York City’s subway. He did 3-D imaging of dance around the New York shoreline as part of an iLAB grant from the iLAND Foundation for using the arts to raise environmental consciousness.

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Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop: Special Holiday Edition, with Former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton
With Daisy Tainton, Former Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History
Dates: Sunday, December 16 (Special Holiday Edition!)
Time: 1 - 4 PM
Admission: $65
***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to class list
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy


Today, join former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton for a special Holiday-themed edition of Observatory's popular Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop. In this class, students will work with Rhinoceros beetles: nature's tiny giants. Each student will learn to make--and leave with their own!--shadowbox dioramas featuring carefully positioned beetles doing nearly anything you can imagine. Beetles and shadowboxes are provided, and an assortment of miniature furniture, foods, and other props will be available to decorate your habitat. Students need bring nothing, though are encouraged to bring along dollhouse props if they have a particular vision for their final piece; 1:12 scale work best.

Daisy Tainton was formerly Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History, and has been working with insects professionally for several years. Eventually her fascination with insects and  love of Japanese miniature food items naturally came together, resulting in cute and ridiculous museum-inspired yet utterly unrealistic dioramas. Beetles at the dentist? Beetles eating pie and knitting sweaters? Even beetles on the toilet? Why not?

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Ghoul A Go-Go Holiday Krampus Party with “DEVILS” Show Premiere!
Date: Saturday, December 22
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $13
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

* Premiere of Ghoul A Go-Go's "DEVILS" show with Vlad and Creighton appearing LIVE!!
* A screening of the bizarro Mexican holiday classic feature film Santa Claus (1959)! The devil Pitch is on the loose! Can Christmas be saved?
* "Beelzebab "Siren of Sodom" performs live burlesque!
* Mistress Dominae Drakonis beats the naughty!
* Mulled Wine! Krampus cake! Piñata! More fun than you can beat with a stick!

Ghoul A Go-Go and Morbid Anatomy are throwing a Krampus holiday party to celebrate the world premiere of Ghoul A Go-Go's new "DEVILS" show! The ghost of Sammy Davis Jr. will not be there, but Vlad and Creighton will pour on more entertainment than a naughty child can handle. Beelzebabe, Siren of Sodom, will perform her scorching "Bad Girls Go To Hell" burlesque--an act one archbishop cited as the cause of his fall from grace! To add to the Krampus festivities, Mistress Dominae Drakonis, in all her satanic majesty, will deal out beatings to the naughty. There will be mulled wine to spice things up even further, as well as a Krampus cake. For your visual entertainment, there will be a screening of the 1959 Mexican classic film, Santa Claus, featuring the the devil Pitch. A piñata will be beaten. You will also have the privilege of being the first to see the brand new Ghoul A Go-Go episode on the big screen in all its devilish glory! To grind things to halt, there will be an Observatory styled lecture on Christmas. And then back to the party! It'll be more fun than a sack full of children so wear your best Krampus costume!

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CLASS: Creating Stereoscopic 3-D Images of Small Specimens Using a Desktop Scanner
Workshop Class with Stereoscopic 3-D Artist Gerald Marks
Date: Saturday, January 5, 2013
Time: 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM with a short lunch break
Fee: $60
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
*** Class size is limited to 16; please RSVP to morbidanatomy[at]gmail.com

In this workshop class you will learn to produce high-quality stereoscopic images of small objects, using a conventional desktop scanner. Everyone in the class can expect to leave with at least one 3-D picture, ready to post on a the web, email, or include in digital slide show, and the knowledge of how to do the process. With this technique, quite a bit of magnification is possible, almost rivaling microscope work.

After scanning, we will work with the images in Adobe Photoshop, using the same basic approach that the instructor has developed for Stereoscopic 3-D images in general, so you will be learning a professional technique for working with 3-D image pairs.
We will primarily view and work with our 3-D images using traditional Anaglyph Red/Blue 3-D glasses but we can output our scan work to any 3-D viewing system, including all types of 3-D projection and 3-D Television. 3-D glasses will be provided.
We will be scanning the objects on a conventional desktop scanners, such as the Epson Perfection series, and working with the scans on a laptop, using Adobe Photoshop (any version). All of the computer work on the instructor's laptop will be projected large, and in 3-D, so that it will be easy to follow.

Bring to Class
The primary thing to bring to class is the object you wish to scan. Almost anything in your collection from about .25" to about 6" wide should work, as long as it holds together. (Slime, for example, doesn't hold together) Natural or man-made objects, such as coins or medals work great. Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral are all OK, as long as it will hold still for at least two exposures. Bring additional objects as some things scan better than others and there may be time to scan more.
Bring a flash drive, or a blank CD, to put your scans on and take home.

You may bring your own laptop, with Photoshop installed, but it is not required. Bring your own scanner, too, if you like (When transporting a scanner, remember to "lock" the scanner head!)
Gerald Marks is an artist working along the border of art and science, specializing in stereoscopic 3-D since 1973. He may be best known for the 3-D videos he directed for The Rolling Stones during their Steel Wheels tour. He has taught at The Cooper Union, The New School for Social Research, and the School of Visual Arts, where he currently teaches Stereoscopic 3-D within the MFA program in Computer Art. He was artist in residence at San Francisco's Exploratorium and a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Media Lab, where he worked with computer-generated holography. His Professor Pulfrich's Universe installations are popular features in museums all over the world, including the Exploratorium, The N. Y. Hall of Science, and Sony ExploraScience in Beijing and Tokyo. He has done 3-D consulting, lecturing and design for scientific purposes for The American Museum of Natural History, the National Institutes of Health, and Discover Magazine. He has created a large variety of 3-D artwork for advertising, display, and pharmaceutical use, as well as broadcast organizations Fox and MTV. He has designed award winning projections and sets at the N.Y. Public Theater, SOHO Rep, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center and the Nashville Ballet, where he created stereoscopically projected sets. He created the 3-D mural in the 28th Street station of the #6 train in New York City’s subway. He did 3-D imaging of dance around the New York shoreline as part of an iLAB grant from the iLAND Foundation for using the arts to raise environmental consciousness.

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A Dark Day in New York: Dispatches from The New York Grimpendium: Lecture and Launch Party for Book of Death-related Sites and Artifacts in New York
An Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing with J.W. Ocker
Date: Monday, January 14
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Produced by Morbid Anatomy
*** Copies of The New York Grimpendium will be available for sale and signing

J.W. Ocker spent a year traveling around New York, visiting some 250 death-related sites and artifacts in the state. A brain collection. A ship graveyard. An abandoned spiritualist mecca. And yes, even The Morbid Anatomy Library. For this presentation, he will be showing pictures and recounting some of the stories from from the darkest corners of the state.

J.W. Ocker grew up in Maryland and currently lives in New Hampshire. He is the author of The New England Grimpendium, for which he won the Lowell Thomas Award for travel writing, and the recently released The New York Grimpendium. He writes about his travels to strange sites around the country at his site OddThingsIveSeen.com.

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Medieval Robots: Automata Since the First Millennium
An illustrated lecture with Elly R. Truitt,  Bryn Mawr College
Date: Friday, January 18 (PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE)
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Robots are everywhere. They build our cars, fight our wars, and clean our homes. Robots help us define concepts of humanity, explore the ethical ramifications of knowledge, and question the role of complex technology in our lives. Yet these liminal objects have a long history. Medieval robots, also called automata, appear throughout the Middle Ages in literature, art, courtly ceremony, and liturgical ritual. They could reveal the time of day or the date of your death, and they might be made by artisans or sorcerers. This illustrated lecture will explore these seductive, strange, and sometimes terrifying objects, and will uncover the hidden medieval past of our robotic present.

Elly R. Truitt is Assistant Professor of Medieval History at Bryn Mawr College. She has published articles in a number of scholarly journals, and is currently finishing a book on medieval automata. She also has a blog, called Medieval Robots. She lives in Philadelphia, PA and is left-handed.

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You can find out more about all of these events here, or sign up for them on Facebook by clicking here.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Image found here.

From the Sacred Heart to the Profane: "Collector of Hearts," Morbid Anatomy Guest Post on The Newly Launched Wellcome Library Website

The kind of research that I am drawn to tends to focus on things that reside at tricky intersections, or have fallen though the historical cracks. The incredibly broad and multi-disciplinary collection of the Wellcome Library — one that gives equal primacy to the highbrow contemporary academia, forgotten ephemera, art, artifacts, outdated science, and outsider scholarship — makes this the perfect library for the sort of research I do, and allows for all manner of idiosyncratic research that would simply be impossible to conceive of at more conventional libraries.
--"Collector of Hearts" Guest Post, The The Wellcome Library Website

Today, that spectacular and unrivaled resource The Wellcome Library launched a brand new, image-intensive website; as part of the relaunch, I was asked to write a guest post about my "user experiences" in the library over a series of visits on my recent trip to London.

In the post--excerpted above, full post here--I use as a point of departure the randomly stumbled upon and utterly amazing book From Holy Pictures to the Healing Saints: Faith and the Heart. In it, author, doctor and collector N. Boyadjian’s showcases and muses on his wonderful and vast assortment of ‘holy pictures,’ also known as ‘prayer cards,’ or small popular pictures used in “individual intimate devotion” (see top 5 images). Using that book and its chapter on "The Sacred Heart" as a departure point, I then delved into all aspects of the Wellcome Library and Image Collection--digital and print, rare and every day--to ferret out the variety of ways in which the human heart has been approached from the sacred and secular, the symbolic to the medical.

In this fashion, I discovered a dizzying array of curiosities showcasing the depth a breadth of The  Wellcome Library and Collection; just a very few of my favorites: an illustration of "A most true and certaine relation of a strange monster or serpent found in the left ventricle of the heart of John Pennant, gentleman, of the age of 21 yeares" (7th down);  a Carmelite scapular; a theatrical-framed illustration of the "Heart, illustrated as a pumping machine" from 1733; "The vivisector asked to choose between head and heart" from 1886; a dried and preserved human tattoo depicting a sacred heart (9th down); a print of of an anatomist examining the heart of suspiciously beautiful female cadaver ("She Had a Heart," 1890) (6th down); and, perhaps my favorite, a painting of souls in purgatory looking at the wounds of christ (8th down).

You can read the post in its entirety--and see all the amazing images I located, a few of which are even zoom-able in the post!--by clicking here.

Images Captions:

1. From the book From Holy Pictures…to the Healing Saints: Faith and the Heart,
   N. Boyadjian, 1986
2. From the book From Holy Pictures…to the Healing Saints: Faith and the Heart,
   N. Boyadjian, 1986
3. From the book From Holy Pictures…to the Healing Saints: Faith and the Heart,
   N. Boyadjian, 1986
4. From the book From Holy Pictures…to the Healing Saints: Faith and the Heart,
   N. Boyadjian, 1986
5. From the book From Holy Pictures…to the Healing Saints: Faith and the Heart,
   N. Boyadjian, 1986
6. From Wellcome Images: a print of of an anatomist examining the heart of suspiciously beautiful female cadaver ("She Had a Heart," 1890)
7. From Wellcome Images: "A most true and certaine relation of a strange monster or serpent found in the left ventricle of the heart of John Pennant, gentleman, of the age of 21 yeares"
8. From Wellcome Images: a painting of souls in purgatory looking at the wounds of Christ
9. From Wellcome Images :a dried and preserved human tattoo depicting a sacred heart

"The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking," Oliver Burkeman, 2012

"... it pointed to an alternative approach, a 'negative path' to happiness, which entailed taking a radically different stance towards those things that most of us spend our lives trying hard to avoid. It involved learning to enjoy uncertainty, embracing insecurity, stopping trying to think positively, becoming familiar with failure, even learning to value death, In short, all these people seemed to agree that in order to be truly happy we might actually need to be willing to experience more negative emotions--or, at the every least, to learn to stop running quite so hard from them. Which is a bewildering thought, and one that calls into question not just our methods for achieving happiness, but also our assumptions about what 'happiness' really means."
--The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, Oliver Burkeman

I am absolutely loving friend, Observatory presenter, and resident genius/Guardian writer Oliver Burkeman's new book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking. A kind of 200 page confutation of the accepted wisdom of "positive thinking" and other truisms of the self-help movement, it is also a terrific and witty introduction to a multitude of exceptionally wise philosophies whose tenants run counter to those ideas, from The Stoics to Buddhism to Mexican Day of the Dead. The result is a book which provides a persuasive argument for reviving the notion of the memento mori--objects or artworks whose function is to urge the beholder to contemplate the fact that they, too, will die--and which takes the unpopular stand that to be truly happy, to live a good and full life, we need to embrace, or at least learn to tolerate, negativity, uncertainty, and death. Ideas that, obviously, I strongly share.

I highly recommend checking this book out for yourself; you can find out more--and order a copy--by clicking here.

Memento-mori themed painting found here.

RESCHEDULED AND RELOCATED: From the Akashic Jukebox: Magic and Music in Britain, 1888-1978: Illustrated Lecture and Rare British Occult Recordings with Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor Press

Sadly, Hurricane Sandy continues to ravage Morbid Anatomy and Observatory in the form of No Electricity. Thus, tonight's scheduled event--"From the Akashic Jukebox: Magic and Music in Britain, 1888-1978: Illustrated Lecture and Rare British Occult Recordings with Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor Press"--has been rescheduled and relocated; it will now take place tomorrow night--Tuesday November 20-at Acme Studio, 63 N. 3rd St. Brooklyn.

Full details follow. Hope very much to see you there.

From the Akashic Jukebox: Magic and Music in Britain, 1888-1978: Illustrated Lecture and Rare British Occult Recordings with Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor Press
Illustrated Lecture and Rare British Occult Recordings with Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor Press
Date: Tuesday, November 20
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
*** Now being held at Acme Studio, 63 N. 3rd St. Brooklyn, as the electricity is still out at Observatory

Magic and music are as old as humanity, but organised witchcraft--a British cultural export whose influence has been felt all over the world--is younger than jazz. In tonight's talk, illustrated with images, music and rare recordings, Strange Attractor's Mark Pilkington explores British occultism’s origins in the bohemian groves of late 19th century London, and charts its impact on popular music and some of its players, from the rock ‘n’ roll years through to the paradigm shift of punk. The emerging stories glow with transcendence, ripple with mystery, honk with absurdity and are all too often shadowed by tragedy.

Mark Pilkington is the author of two books - Mirage Men: An Adventure into Disinformation, Paranoia and UFOs and Far Out: 101 Strange Tales from Science's Outer Edge and has written for Fortean Times, the Guardian, Sight & Sound, The Wire, Frieze, The Anomalist and a host of other magazines and journals. Mark also runs Strange Attractor Press, editing and publishing its occasional Journal, and organising events and exhibitions.

"'Morbid Anatomy Anthology': Brooklyn Art Group Seeks Funding For Curious New Book," The Huffington Post

From today's Huffington Post:

Morbid Anatomy Anthology': Brooklyn Art Group Seeks Funding For Curious New Book

Mummified remains, taxidermied animals, jarred body parts. These are the images that greet you when you visit the Kickstarter page for Morbid Anatomy.

The curiously named organization, housed in the Proteus Gowanus Gallery space in Brooklyn, is an arts-meets-science, subcultural playhouse that hosts lectures, performances and art exhibits all in the name of, well, oddities. Officially described as a survey of "the interstices of art and medicine, death and culture," Morbid Anatomy is really just a creative laboratory where curious scientists, artists, writers and weirdos get together to explore the underworld of scholarship that no one else gives a second glance. From anthropodermic bibliopegy (books bound in human skin) to extreme taxidermy to death-themed cabaret in 19th century Paris, the group covers just about any macabre topic you could imagine.


Morbid Anatomy showcases its esoteric findings in two ways -- a library/pocket museum hat showcases the books, photographs and ephemera of its obscure researchers and a presentation and lecture series titled "Morbid Anatomy Presents." But now the "rogue morticians" are seeking to add a third platform, announcing on their Kickstarter plans for a "Morbid Anatomy Anthology." The illustrated book will feature the best of the Morbid Anatomy Presents series, like the work of Anthropomorphic Mouse Taxidermy Class teacher Sue Jeiven or "Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads" author Stephen Asma.

The Kickstarter launched today, already exceeding it's goal by over $15,000. Check out the video above to learn more about the project of Joanna Ebenstein and Colin Dickey. What do you think, readers? Does Morbid Anatomy lean in the direction of beauty or horror?

To read the entire article and see a slideshow on the work of the lovely Tessa Farmer, click here. To donate to the campaign and secure a copy of the book for your very own, click here.

"Diableries” (or “Devilment”) Stereo Views, 19th Century

Some of you might recall my recent desperate search for hi-resolution images of “Diableries” (or “Devilment”) 19th century 3D stereo views. Morbid Anatomy reader Corey Schjoth kindly obliged, sending me the photographs you see above, demonstrating both front- and back-lit views of a particularly wonderful card.

Corey is also a photographer of haunted places; you can find out more about he and his work by clicking here, and check out his Etsy shop by clicking here.

I highly recommend clicking on the image to see larger, finer versions. And if you want to know more about these enigmatic and fantastic Diableries, you could do worse than to watch the Midnight Archive featurette on the topic by clicking here. Also, stay tuned for a heavily-illustrated article about "Diableries” in the upcoming Morbid Anatomy Anthology! More on that here.

"Death: A Self Portrait," The Wellcome Collection, Through February 24, 2013

In some way death in our culture happens offstage in private, but this show looks at the ways in which people have explored death much more face on. --Kate Forde, Curator of "Death: A Self Portrait," The Wellcome Collection, BBC Magazine

My last night in London, I had the honor and delight to attend the preview of "Death: A Self Portrait," the Wellcome Collection's spectacularly amazing new exhibition which officially opens today.

Beautifully and thought-provokingly curated by Kate Forde (who also curated the Wellcome's 2009 Exquisite Bodies), the exhibition uses as its base and its muse the extensive, broad, and rather profound death-themed collection of Chicago-based Richard Harris. Harris' collection is comprised of all things death, ranging from valuable artistic masterworks to the lowest-brow of popular culture, bringing to mind the collection of none other than Henry Wellcome, the man behind the Wellcome Collection. To its merit, "Death: A Self Portrait" draws deftly from both extremes as well as all that is located in between; the result is an exhibition that is at a lovely, provocative, fascinating, witty, and thoughtful investigation into the human obsession with imagining and coming to terms with that greatest and most unknown of absolutes: DEATH.

"Death: A Self Portrait" is divided up into five sections: The first, "Contemplating Death," is a collection of memento mori themed work; The second, "The Dance of Death," gathers works responding to notions of the danse macabre or death as the great equalizer; "Violent Death" features a variety of artistic responses to war, including Goya's Disasters of War series; "Commemoration" concerns itself with burial, morning, and our responses the particular dead; My personal favorite, "Eros and Thanatos," is an unusual addition to a public discussion of death, and showcases "works expressing our strange fascination with 'things at the outer limits of life and death, sexuality and pain."

Above are just a very few images from this wonderful exhibition; there are many, many more excellent artworks, objects and artifacts to be seen; I simply cannot more highly recommend checking out this jaw-dropper before its closing date on February 24th!

You can find out more about the show on the Wellcome Collection website by clicking here; To hear the lovely illustrated interview with curator Kate Forde from which the above quote was drawn, click here.

Also, for the interested among you: both collector-of-death Richard Harris and curator Kate Forde will be contributors to the Morbid Anatomy Anthology, a new lavish book immortalizing in words and images the best of Morbid Anatomy Presents; you can secure your own copy--and find out more--by clicking here. For more on the Richard Harris collection, click here to learn about a recent exhibition using his collection as its base at The Chicago Cultural Center.

All images ©  Wellcome Images, Courtesy The Richard Harris Collection; captions, top to bottom:

1. Metamorphic Postcard, c.1900 
2. Skeleton puppet. Wood and cotton
3. Bathel Bruyn the elder, 'A Skull in a Niche', c.1535-55 Oil on panel
4. When Shall we Meet Again?Gelatin silver print Size, c.1900
5. Louis Crusius, Antikamnia, 1900 Paper: calendar series of 6, 1900
6. Marcos Raya, Untitled (family portrait: woman in yellow dress), 2005 Collage: vintage photo with mixed media
7. Dana Salvo, From the series 'The Day, the Night and the Dead': 'Home altar atop table commemorating ancestors', 1990-2004 Photograph
8. Alfred Rethel, 'Death the Enemy', 1851 Wood engraving
9. Memento Mori, unknown artist, late 18th-century Engraving
10. Mors Ultima Linea Rerum (Death the Final Boundary of Things), c.1570 Engraving, 
11. Ivo Saliger 'Der Artz (The Doctor), c.1921 Colour etching on brown paper
12. Marcos Raya, Untitled (family portrait: grandma), 2005

"Morbid Fears and Compulsions," H.W. Frink, 1921, The Wellcome Library

Morbid fears and compulsions : their psychology and psychoanalytic treatment / by H.W. Frink ; with an introduction by James J. Putnam
London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1921 (Torquay : Devonshire Press.)
Open shelves     Medical Collection WM170 1921F91m
Physical description   
xxiii, 344 p., [4] leaves of plates : ill. ; 22 cm.
Note   
Includes index
Some of the material was previously published in various journals.-cf. Pref
"Reprinted (by arrangement with Messrs. Moffat, Yard & Co., of New York) from the American edition"
Bibliography: p. 337-341.

From the wonderful Wellcome Library.

"Held," Jane Fradgley, Guy’s Hospital, London, Through March 2013

“I was fascinated by the seemingly comforting strong dresses, and related this form of protective care to my own experiences in hospital and encounters with modern day psychiatric care. My aim was to create a representation of the pieces which lay somewhere between documentary and poetry, incorporating my love of abstraction yet offering a clear portrayal of the pieces for the viewer to interpret themselves." --Jane Fradgley, Held

Last week a friend brought me to see a wonderful exhibition of photography by artist Jane Fradgley; the body of work, entitled "Held," responds to a collection of "strong clothing"--i.e. restraint clothing used in 19th century asylums--kept in the stores of Bethlem Royal Hospital and Museum. The exhibition will be on view in Atrium 2 of Guy's Hospital through March 8, 2013. You can see a few of Fradgley's strikingly uncanny photographs above, but I highly recommend you visit them in person if you can to get a real sense of scale (they are printed life-sized) and emotive impact.

Full information follows:

Held                 
by Jane Fradgley
Funded by Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity
Atrium 2
Guy’s Hospital
7th November 2012 – 8th March 2013

This new photographic exhibition by artist Jane Fradgley is informed by the collection of strong clothing housed at the Bethlem Royal Hospital Archive & Museum, Beckenham, Kent. The history of this largely unexplored area of mental health care is both powerful and poignant. Through investigation, the artist’s intention is to open new dialogue and debate around protection and restraint in mental health practice. With a background as a fashion designer and a passionate interest in functional and tailored garments, Fradgley was inspired to delve into the archive after seeing Victorian portrait photographs of patients at Bethlem wearing unusual quilted dresses. 

“I was fascinated by the seemingly comforting strong dresses, and related this form of protective care to my own experiences in hospital and encounters with modern day psychiatric care. My aim was to create a representation of the pieces which lay somewhere between documentary and poetry, incorporating my love of abstraction yet offering a clear portrayal of the pieces for the viewer to interpret themselves. 
I enjoyed the intimacy when alone with the garments, and felt closer to them by zooming in on details. One by one the pieces were carefully brought to me like offerings for my lens. They appeared reverential and it seemed fitting to respect this when arranging them in a staged setting in the studio. As each session passed I grew very fond of the pieces, perhaps my own projection but I felt as though they had certain characters. I hoped to convey the essence of the people who wore each garment as I felt great energy from the textiles - possibly there were many wearers and many stories never to be told. I had never imagined that these old garments would hold so much emotive substance. For me the purpose of the strong clothing was not to invoke or exacerbate fear or anxiety in the patient, rather the attention to detail in creating such well constructed garments was to bring some dignity, serenity, peace and tranquility 
to the wearer as an antidote to their anguish. Wishing to engage with that sense of calm, I explored soft lighting techniques, however some of the garments responded best in the darkness of the shadows, 
a reminder of the inevitable blackness of mental illness”.

Strong clothing was a rather euphemistic term used to describe certain forms of restraint used in late 19th century asylums. While chains, strait-jackets (known as strait-waistcoats) and similar garments were outlawed during the ‘non-restraint’ movement of the 1840s and ’50s, other methods of ‘mechanical restraint’ were permitted by the Commissioners in Lunacy (the government body who inspected and licensed asylums for much of the 19th century). The intention of strong clothing (including strong dresses and padded gloves) was to protect patients, both preventing self-inflicted injury and the destruction of their clothing.

“Strong dresses,” as described by Bethlem Superintendent George Savage in 1888, were “made of stout linen or woollen material, and lined throughout with flannel. The limbs are all free to move, but the hands are enclosed in the extremities of the dress, which are padded. …There are no strait-waistcoats, handcuffs, or what may be called true instruments of restraint in Bethlem”. Savage claimed that, by avoiding recourse to the use of sedatives or padded cells for violent or destructive patients, many “were thus really granted liberty by means of the slight restraint put upon them”.

The terms, descriptions and types of garment used were fraught with meaning for contemporaries, many of whom saw themselves as enlightened humanitarians. Others, however, did not agree, and the ‘principle of non-restraint’ remained an ongoing matter of debate. By the turn of the 20th century strait-jackets appeared to have returned 
to some institutions. Although the exact dates of the garments seen in these photographs are unknown, given the types of garments reported by the Commissioners in Lunacy as in use at this time, it is likely that they were adopted in the period 1880 –1920.

Through this historical perspective, held reminds us of the difficulty of placing a clear line between care, cure and control in a mental health context. Treatment providers invariably have to make extremely difficult decisions, indicating the importance of opening up debate around physical restraint and chemical intervention in mental health care today.

We are planning a symposium on the subject in 2013, if you would like to be informed about 
or participate in that symposium contact Sarah Chaney at s.chaney@ucl.ac.uk.

You can find out more about Jane Fradgley's work by clicking here.Thanks so much to Jane for the images and materials, and to Phil Loring for introducing me to her work.

A Trip to the 19th Century Popular Anatomical Museum: "La leçon d'hygiène," Félicien Rops, Late 19th Century

Whilst doing research in the wonderful and amazing Wellcome Library in London last week, I came upon a mention of the wonderful and underknown painting shown above, "la leçon d'hygiène" by Belgian decadent artist Félicien Rops. The painting is a rare fine-art depiction of a visit to a 19th century popular anatomical museum. I could find out precious little about it, but Wikimedia claims it is in a private collection and was painted between 1878 and 1881.

If anyone knows anything more about it, please email me at morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com. I also highly recommend that you click on the image to see larger, finer version.

Morbid Anatomy Tote Bag and Anthology

The Morbid Anatomy Anthology --a new lavish book immortalizing in words and images the best of the Morbid Anatomy Presents event series--just got honorable mention in the Kickstarter "Projects We Love Newsletter." Since this happened, many potential funders have been asking to see a photo of the Morbid Anatomy tote bag, which is one of the bonus awards received for a pledge of $50.

Above please find said bag, in all its glory. I can personally attest to the sturdiness of this lovely creature (I use mine every day!). Specs wise, it is 15 1/2" tall by 15" wide, and has 22" shoulder straps. The image is drawn from a circa 17th century guide to the private museum of "Artist of Death" Frederik Ruysch, one of the topics covered in the book; Click on image to see larger version.

And for the curious, here is what Kickstarter had to say about our project:

Marvelously macabre
The rogue scholars behind Morbid Anatomy Presents specialize in the creepier nooks of knowledge — extreme taxidermy and human tattoo collection, to name a few — but their work is all the more fascinating for its macabre sensibility. This lavishly illustrated anthology will immortalize a year's worth of their most engrossing presentations, like a recent lecture on bookbinding with human skin. (We just hope their tome comes clad in old-fashioned leather.)

To see more about the project--and to secure a copy of the book for yourself for a mere $25 pledge!--click here.

Burning Effigies, "No Popery," and Torch-Carrying Mobs: Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night in Lewes, England, November 5

Last night at I participated in what believe is the most amazing spectacle I have ever experienced: Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night in Lewes, England. It was about 7 hours or tramping through the cold damp, passing liquor bottles and following the flaming-torch wielding mob. Photos and video above; more photos can be seen here, and following is more about this curious celebration of barely controlled mayhem, care of Wikipedia:

Lewes Bonfire is a series of celebrations in the town of Lewes, East Sussex which form the UK's largest and most famous Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night festivities, [Guy Fawkes day celebrates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, where Guy Fawkes and a group of English Catholics attempted to blow up the British House of Lords]. [T]he event... also commemorates the memory of the seventeen Protestant martyrs from the town burnt at the stake for their faith during the Marian Persecutions...

... After several processions, including acts of Remembrance for the war dead, each society marches to its own fire site on the edge of the town, where there is a large bonfire, firework display and burning of effigies. The societies then return to their HQs for Bonfire Prayers. Whilst marching nearly all members carry torches, some ignite and drop bangers, locally called rookies (short for rook scarers), and some carry burning crosses, banners, musical instruments or burning letters spelling out the initials of the society. In recent years the police presence on the night has increased to deal with the large crowds attracted to the event.

Many of those processing wear smuggler uniforms (striped jumper, white trousers, black boots and optional red hat). All Societies have different coloured striped smugglers' jumpers. A number of large effigies are drawn though the streets including Guy Fawkes and Pope Paul V, who became head of the Roman Catholic Church in 1605. In addition, each of the five main local societies creates a topical "tableau", and the Cliffe and Southover societies display on pikes the heads (also in effigy) of its current "Enemies of Bonfire", who range from nationally reviled figures to local officials who have attempted to place restrictions on the event. Restrictions are generally ignored by the Societies. The local St. John's Ambulance team has posts around procession routes to care for anyone who has been injured.

As mentioned above, you can see a full set of photos by clicking here. And special thanks to friend and collaborator Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor Press (as pictured in bottom photo) for organizing the excursion, and stressing its import. This truly is a spectacle not to be missed.

Morbidity Vindicated: A Review of 'Seize the Day' Event at the Wellcome Collection

 

Much of what Ebenstein shows us seems bursting at the seams with meaning, as if the objects have travelled through history like a ball of snow gathering mass as it rolls down a hill. Tableaux of foetal skeletons engaging in miniature funeral ceremonies take on very different meanings in modernity as opposed to when they were constructed...

... I agree with Ebenstein when she criticises those who would define her as unhealthily morbid. I think it's far more interesting to try and understand what our irresistible compulsion to explore this subject says about the psychology of humanity, and how we bear the burden of being the only animal with the foresight to see the Grim Reaper  somewhere up the road ahead of us, tapping his scythe impatiently.

--'Seize the Day' at the Wellcome Collection, 2nd November 2012, London City Nights

The above is drawn from a lovely and insightful review of last Friday night's amazing "Seize the Day" event at The Wellcome Collection from the "London City Nights" website; it includes a detailed and sensitive response to my own contribution to the night's festivities: A lecture entitled "Art and Death." You can read the entire article in its entirely by clicking here.

Images drawn from the post, and were all discussed at length in the lecture. Top to bottom:

1. 18th Century Anatomical Venus
2. Cabaret de Néant Postcard
3. 17th Century Fetal Skeleton Tableau from The Secret Museum exhibition

The "Scare Houses" of Lisa Kereszi, Time Magazine "Light Box"

Why do we like haunted houses?... On one level, this is easy to understand. It’s all about death—that undiscovered country our culture keeps off the thought-map. Death, death, death, coming at us in the form of ghosts, monsters, maggots, snakes, killer clowns, necromancers, headless horsemen, slime crawlers, banshees, and all manner of rotting flesh and decay, aiming to infect us with its fate. The haunted house takes us to death’s door: sewers, graveyards, mortuaries, abattoirs, bottomless pits and of course, hell itself, yawning wide to receive us. Abandon all hope and enter at your own risk!
--"Haunt Me: The Scare Houses of Lisa Kereszi," by Ginger Strand, Time Magazine's "Lightbox"

You can read the entire article--and view the entire collection of strangely sad photographs of Halloween "Scare Houses"by friend of Morbid Anatomy Lisa Kereszi, s sample of which you see above--by clicking here.

"Death and What it Can Teach us About Improving Life," BBC Radio "Today," November 2

I just got back from the BBC studios, where I engaged in a (very brief) live discussion about death and "what it can teach us about improving life" with Ben Haggarty of the Crick Crack Club as part of the promotion for tonight's "Seize the Day" event at The Wellcome Collection. If you are interested in giving it a listen, click here; the piece begins at about two Hours and fifty five minutes in.

Segment description, from the BBC website:

The Wellcome Trust in London is going to hold an evening of talks about death and what it can teach us about improving life. Joanna Ebenstein, who runs a blog called Morbid Anatomy, and Ben Haggarty, who runs the Crick Crack Club which is a story telling workshop, ask why we find it hard in modern western society to talk about death.

Hope to see you at the event tonight!

Happy Day of the Dead with The Lennon Sisters Rousing Rendition of "Dry Bones"

Happy Day of the Dead Part II with The Lennon Sisters and "Dry Bones."

And yes, I know I've posted this one before, but its too good not to post again!