Tomorrow night! Death Themed Adult Education!

Tomorrow night I will be giving a VERY brief introduction to the world of medical museums as part of a death themed series of lectures at Brooklyn's Union Hall, curated by Adult Education. The lecture will be lavishly illustrated with photographs of medical museums front and back-stage (as seen above) that I have collected over the past 5 years, some from the Anatomical Theatre series and some from later explorations.

Hope to see you there! Full information and line-up here. More on Anatomical Theatre here.

Upcoming Observatory Events for this Week and Beyond!

These next couple of weeks are big weeks for Morbid Anatomy Presents at Observatory! Here is a quick list of upcoming events; scroll to find complete information for each one:

• This Thursday, December 3, we will be hosting an illustrated lecture by former AMNH Artist in Residence Justine Cooper about her new body of artwork inspired by medical mannequins entitled "LIVING in SIM."
  
  
• The following Sunday, December 6th, Jim Edmonson of the Dittrick Museum and Medical History Center will give a lecture about about his critically acclaimed book Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine, 1880-1930. Books will be available for purchase and signing.
  
  
• The following Thursday, December 10th, Robert Hicks, director of Philadelphia’s unrivaled Mütter Museum will present an illustrated lecture exploring "our dialogue with post mortem human imagery by examining its relationship to politics and ownership of the dead [incorporating] perspectives drawn from anthropology, art criticism, history, museum curatorship, and criminal justice." To supplement his talk, he will bring in some artifacts from the museum for our perusal and contemplation. Blast Books Mütter Museum books and 2010 calendar will also be available for sale.

Full info on each event to follow. Hope to see you at one or more of these great events!

LIVING in SIM
Date: Thursday, December 3rd
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
An illustrated lecture by former AMNH Artist in Residence Justine Cooper about her new body of work

The exploding field of medical simulation inspired Justine Cooper’s Living in Sim project. Her mixed-reality artwork includes a website, online social media, photography, video and installation to explore the complexities present in the current health care environment and online social media. The project is an outcome of her artist-in-residency at the Center for Medical Simulation in Cambridge, MA from 2008-2009 along with visits to many East Coast simulation centers.
Cooper will be showing images she has taken in her journeys through many of these medical simulation centers, including images of simulations in progress, the sites where medical simulation is being utilized, mannequins she has met along the way and the characters she created for them beyond their roles as patient simulators.

The gallery show is up through the end of the year at
Daneyal Mahmood Gallery
511 West 25th Street 3fl
New York, NY 10011
T-Sa 11-6
website http://livinginsim.com

Bio: Sydney born, New York based artist Justine Cooper investigates the intersections between culture, science and medicine. She has been artist-in-residence at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Australian Key Center for Microscopy and Microanalysis. She is best known for creating the (fictional) lifestyle drug, HAVIDOL (http://havidol.com). Her work has been internationally recognized and exhibited including at The New Museum, New York; The Singapore Museum of Art; Netherlands Institute for Media Art, George Pompidou Centre, Paris; and the International Center of Photography, New York. She credits her interest in making work in science and medical institutions to the fact she grew up as the daughter of two veterinarians. As a child she lived in the back rooms of their veterinary clinic, observing and sometime assisting in examinations and surgeries.

The Dissection Room Photo: A Lost Genre of Medical Portraiture.
Date: Sunday, December 6th
Time: 4:00 PM
Admission: $5
An illustrated lecture about the history of dissection photos in America as discussed in the critically acclaimed Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine 1880-1930, by co-author and Chief Curator of the Dittrick Medical History Center James Edmonson

*Copies of Dissection will be available for sale and signing; Mütter Museum Books and 2010 Calendar will also be available for sale

This illustrated lecture by James Edmonson, based on research and photographs presented in his critically acclaimed (Amazon top 10 science books of the year, featured in New York Times, New York Times Book Review, Slate, NPR All Things Considered, NPR Science Friday) Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine 1880-1930, will explicate and contextualize an under-seen genre of the American photographic tradition: photographs taken of human dissections by medical students. This book, with more than 100 rare historic photos, will be available for sale and signing at the event, along with other Blast Books publications such as the 2010 Mütter Museum Calendar and books The Mütter Museum, and Mütter Museum Historic Medical Photographs.

James (Jim) M. Edmonson is Chief Curator of the Dittrick Medical History Center and Museum of Case Western Reserve University. Jim is a historian of technology who always wanted to be a curator and by a quirk of fate ended up in a medical museum, the Dittrick Museum of Medical History in Cleveland, Ohio. Recent publications include American Surgical Instruments (1997) and Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine, 1880-1930 (Blast Books, 2009). Jim has also recently opened a major permanent exhibition at the Dittrick, “Virtue, Vice, and Contraband: A History of Contraception in America,” and is working on a companion illustrated history of contraception in book form. In the medical museum field Jim has been past president of the Medical Museums Association and serves as Secretary General of the European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences. He has been a consultant to the Warren Anatomical Museum of Harvard University, the New York Academy of Medicine, the Mutter Museum, and the Waring Historical Library.

More about the book, from the publisher’s press release:

Featuring 138 rare, historic photographs, Dissection is a “landmark book” (Ruth Richardson) that reveals a startling piece of American history, the rite of passage into the mysteries of medicine captured in photography. From the advent of photography in the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, medical students, often in secrecy, took photographs of themselves with the cadavers that they dissected: their first patients. The photographs were made in a variety of forms, from proud class portraits to staged dark-humor scenes, from personal documentation to images reproduced on postcards sent in the mail. Poignant, strange, disturbing, and humorous, they are all compelling.

These photographs were made at a time when Victorian societal taboos against intimate knowledge of the human body were uneasily set aside for medical students in pursuit of knowledge that could be gained only in the dissecting room. "Dissection," writes Mary Roach, “documents—in archival photographs and informed, approachable prose—a heretofore almost entirely unknown genre, the dissection photograph.” “Without looking,” writes John Harley Warner, “we cannot see an uncomfortable past and begin to understand the legacies that American doctors and patients live with today.” That uncomfortable past saw the gradual passing of state laws, from 1831 to 1947, to govern the awkward business of cadaver supply—ever inadequate—bringing an end to reliance on professional “resurrectionists,” grave robbing, and dissection as an extended punishment for murder and as a consequence of poverty.

As James Edmonson notes, “Unsettling though these images may be, they are a thread connecting us to the shared experience among medical professionals over generations. . . . As medical schools explore alternatives to human dissection, this rite of passage may disappear.” Together, the remarkable archival photographs and illuminating essays in Dissection present the astonishing social realities of the pursuit of medical knowledge in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America.

Praise for the book:
“An extraordinary collection of photographs. . . . Forget the truckloads of grandiose prose that has been spun about the art and science of medicine over the centuries: one look at this picture [page 188] and you understand what it is all supposed to be about.”
—Abigail Zuger, MD, The New York Times

“This is the most extraordinary book I have ever seen [and] the perfect coffee table book for all the households where I’d most like to be invited for coffee.”
—Mary Roach, author of Stiff and Bonk

“A truly unique and important book [that] documents a period in medical education in a way that is matched by no other existing contribution.”
—Sherwin Nuland, MD, author of How We Die

Exquisite Corpses
Date: Thursday, December 10
Time: 8:00 pm (Doors at 7)
Admission: $5
Illustrated Lecture and Artifacts from the Mütter Museum, Robert Hicks, Director of the Mütter Museum
* Mütter Museum Books and 2010 Calendar will be available for sale

Images of post mortem human remains are fascinating and disquieting. They amuse children at Halloween and disturb adults when on display at museums. Today’s omnipresent imagery of people doing everything at all times has not accustomed us to depictions of human mortality. The dead are speedily removed from view, and our direct contact with the dead is limited and controlled. Although mortal images can arouse empathy and may develop tolerance for a spectrum of human physical variation, other cultural voices argue for proscription and censure. In this presentation, Robert Hicks, director of the Mütter Museum, explores our dialogue with post mortem human imagery by examining its relationship to politics and ownership of the dead. He incorporates perspectives drawn from anthropology, art criticism, history, museum curatorship, and criminal justice.

Robert D. Hicks, Ph.D. is the director of the Mütter Museum and Historical Library at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He also directs the F. C. Wood Institute and holds the William Maul Measey Chair for the History of Medicine. Before coming to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Robert supervised exhibits, collections, and educational outreach as the Director of the Roy Eddleman Institute for Education and Interpretation at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia. He has worked with museum-based education, curatorship, and exhibits, primarily as a consultant to historic sites in Virginia. Additionally, he has served as a U.S. Naval officer and worked in criminal justice for over two decades.

This list is just the beginning; there are many more great events coming up in the weeks to come, including a Krumpus-themed Holiday party on December 19th! To see the entire upcoming schedule, click here. To get on the mailing list, click here. For directions to Observatory, click here.

"Tragic Beauties," Barbara Abel

I just stumbled upon these lovely and uncanny photographs of early 20th century shop-window mannequins by Barbara Abel. Part of a series she calls "Tragic Beauties," the photos were taken in a a "dimly lit mannequin warehouse in downtown Detroit, [where] they sat, covered in plastic for decades, until a few years ago when they were sold to collectors."

Lovely, wonderful things; can't help but wonder--and not without envy--who are the lucky collectors who ended up with them?

More on the "Tragic Beauties" here. Via, again, the fantastic Wurzeltod, who seemed to have found them on the Marieaunet Blog, from which I sourced the above images. Please click in images to see larger, more-detailed versions.

"Morbid Anatomies and Anatomical Theatres: A Guided Tour through the World of Medical Museums," Lecture, "Adult Education," Tues. December 1

I would like to cordially invite all Morbid Anatomy readers to Adult Education's monthly lecture series at Park Slope New York's lovely Union Hall next Tuesday, December 1st. The theme for this month's installment is "Death," and I will be contributing to the evening's festivities with a heavily-illustrated lecture on the art and history of medical museums, with a special focus on the most spectacular examples of anatomical artworks and the great artists of the genre, as observed on the one-month pilgrimage to medical museums around the world I embarked upon in the development of the Anatomical Theatre exhibition.

Also featured in the evening's line-up will be Dorian Devins, Margaret Mittelbach, & Andrew Templar on the Carnivorous Nights taxidermy contest (as discussed in this recent post), Katherine Heller on "Le Petit Mort: Death as a Metaphor for Orgasm in Popular Culture and Literature" and Alex Pareene on "Homicidal Tendencies In Electronic Information Networks."

Adult Education describes itself as "a useless lecture series" and presents "brief, multimedia lectures on a shared theme" by a variety of speakers. As you can see by the full line-up below, this one is sure to be good! Hope to see you there!

ADULT EDUCATION PRESENTS:
"Death"
Tuesday, December 1, 2009 - 8 pm (doors at 7:30)
Union Hall in Park Slope, New York
702 Union St. @ 5th Ave
$5 cover

DORIAN DEVINS, MARGARET MITTELBACH, & ANDREW TEMPLAR
"Death and Taxidermy: The Ape That Launched 1000 Quips"
Devins, Mittelbach, and Templar discuss observations gleaned from four years of Carnivorous Nights, an annual taxidermy contest held in Brooklyn.

ALEX PAREENE
"Everyone Is Trying To Kill You: Analyzing Homicidal Tendencies In Electronic Information Networks"
The most dangerous people in America today are celebrities. And Arianna Huffington is letting them blog. Alex Pareene assesses recent threats to our national health from Suzanne Somers and Canada.

KATHARINE HELLER
"Le Petit Mort: Death as a Metaphor for Orgasm in Popular Culture and Literature"
Heller looks at the various ways in which death, much like everything else, is tied to sex.

JOANNA EBENSTEIN
"Morbid Anatomies and Anatomical Theatres: A Guided Tour through the World of Medical Museums"
What is the difference between a wet and a dry specimen? Why did people make life-sized, recumbent wax women whose insides could be taken apart into dozens of pieces? Where did Gunther von Hagens (Body Worlds exhibit) get his schtick? Joanna Ebenstein presents a virtual tour of great medical museums of the western world.

Hosted, as always, by the inimitable Charles Star

* * * *

BIOS

DORIAN DEVINS and MARGARET MITTELBACH are cofounders of Secret Science Club, a monthly lecture series at the Bell House in Brooklyn. Devins is a radio producer and host of WFMU, 91.1 FM's "The Speakeasy," a weekly arts and cultural interview program. Mittelbach is co-author, with ANDREW TEMPLAR, of Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger and author of Wild New York: A Guide to the Wildlife, Wild Places and Natural Phenomena of New York City. Templar is co-owner of Union Hall, the Bell House, Floyd, and the mysterious 'rump ape.'

JOANNA EBENSTEIN is a Brooklyn based artist. She runs the Morbid Anatomy blog and the Morbid Anatomy Library. She is also the founding member of Observatory, a collaborative Gowanus-based exhibition/presentation space where she presents lectures on a variety of morbid topics. Her recent exhibition, Anatomical Theatre, is a photo survey of great medical museums of the western world.

KATHARINE HELLER is a writer, actress and comedian. Most recently, she wrote and produced an award-winning show at the New York International Fringe Festival, The Boy in the Basement. Heller has been a regular theater and nightlife reviewer for the online magazine New York Cool and is working on her first one-woman show, My Dad's Crazier Than Your Dad.

ALEX PAREENE writes about politics for Gawker and is author of the blog Everyone Is Trying To Kill You. Formerly, he was Editor of Washington DC gossip website Wonkette.com. His writing has appeared on many famous and popular internet sites, on the World Wide Web. He is not a doctor and, in fact, did not even finish attaining a BFA.

CHARLES STAR (HOST) is a lawyer sans portfolio and a stand-up comedian sans recognition who lives in Brooklyn with his excellent wife, his awesome cat, and a budding baby genius. He's on the web at charlesstar.com.

Full information about the event and more about the Adult Education series can be found by clicking here. You can find out more about the venue, including directions, by clicking here.

The image you see above is drawn from the "Anatomical Theatre" exhibition; click here to view the full exhibition. The model pictured is called "The Slashed Beauty" and is a life-sized wax anatomical model with human hair which reclines on a silk cushion in a rosewood and Venetian Glass case; she was probably modeled by Clemente Susini around 1790 and is housed at "La Specola” (Museo di Storia Naturale) in Florence, Italy. You will hear the story behind this model and many others of equally spectacular nature in my lecture next Tuesday.

Papier-Mâché Anatomist Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux's Epic Atelier

Of all the anatomical modelers I know, Dr. Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux is one of my least favorites, due to his medium of choice being not the uncanny and fine wax of his precursors but prosaic and utilitarian Papier-Mâché. That said, I really do love this photo of Auzoux's atelier, which one of the presenters at the Auzoux conference at the Boerhaave Museum last year included in their lecture. I was finally able to find a copy online as of this morning; The caption reads "Etablissement du Dr Auzoux - Modèles fabriqués dans les ateliers de Saint-Aubin-d'Ecrosville (Eure)." Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

More on Auzoux and his work can be found on this recent Morbid Anatomy post. Click the image--found it on Arehn's Picassa gallery--to see much larger, more detailed image.

"From Pastels to PDA's: Medical Education from Pennsylvania Hospital's medical library the 18th C. to the 21st C." Exhibition, Philadelphia

I just learned of a very exciting art/medicine exhibition opening on December 1st at the Pennsylvania Hospital's medical library in Philadelphia, PA. The show, entitled "From Pastels to PDA's: Medical Education from the 18th C. to the 21st C.," will features 16 original Jan Van Rymsdyk anatomical drawings that reside in the permanent collection of their historic collection but are almost never shown, due to their extremely fragile nature. These exquisite crayon drawings were created in the late 18th Century, and their provenance traces back to the personal collection of Benjamin Franklin, who founded Pennsylvania Hospital in 1751. The artist Jan Van Rymsdyk is best known for his sensitive and ground-breaking illustrations 18th Century surgeon William Hunter's Anatomia uteri humani gravidi, or The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus; you can see the best known of those illustrations by clicking here.

The exhibition will be on view until January 2010. This show looks seriously not-to-be-missed.

Here is the full description of the exhibition, from the library website:

From Pastels to PDA's: Medical Education from the 18th c. to the 21st c. exhibits our collection of sixteen Jan Van Rymsdyk anatomical drawings for the first time together in one display. Opening to the public on December 1, 2009, this exhibition is sure to engage visitors interested in the history of medicine.

Long before the use of the X-ray, CAT scan, ultrasound and digital technology, the use of images played an important role in the medical education of students. Anatomical illustrations were cutting edge in the eighteenth century, and Jan Van Rymsdyk was known as one of the best anatomical illustrators in the world. Van Rymsdyk has kept his stature over the past two and a half centuries.

These illustrations were created with crayon making them very susceptible to damage, however, they survived a trip across the ocean in 1762 to become a center of the medical education young men received. In a letter dated April 7, 1762, Fothergill stated, “I need not tell thee that the knowledge of anatomy is of exceeding great use to Practionors in Physic and Surgery & that the means of procuring Subjects with you are not easy.” Medical education was about to change forever in Philadelphia.

Fothergill further offered his opinion that the drawings “not to be seen by every Person but with the Permission of a Trustee & for some small Gratuity for the Benefitt of the House.” Heeding Dr. Fothergill's warning, the drawings were viewed on a limited basis and carefully housed to protect them. Today, as 247 years ago, the drawings are viewed on a limited basis making this exhibit a rare treat for the public. The exhibition will run until December 2010.

For more information please call 215-829-5434.

You can find out more about the exhibition, and how to visit it, by clicking here. You can read more about the show--and much more about the history of the collection--by clicking here.

All images from the Museum Website; Captions: Top: Jan van Rymsdyk (fl. 1750-1788) created the oil drawing shown here, which is part of the Pennsylvania Hospital Historic Collections.; Bottom: Jan van Rymsdyk (fl. 1750-1788) was the primary illustrator for William Hunter's noted work, Anatomia uteri humani gravidi, or The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus. The oil drawing shown here is part of the Pennsylvania Hospital Historic Collections.

'We Like Lists Because We Don't Want to Die,' Umberto Eco Guest Curator at the Louvre!

The list is the origin of culture. It's part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order... And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries...We have a limit, a very discouraging, humiliating limit: death. That's why we like all the things that we assume have no limits and, therefore, no end. It's a way of escaping thoughts about death. We like lists because we don't want to die. --Umberto Eco, on his current guest-curated Louvre exhibition “Mille e tre," Spiegel, 2009

It has just come to my attention that Umberto Eco has guest curated an exhibition at The Louvre in Paris. Entitled “Mille e tre" or "The Infinity of Lists," the exhibition is on view in the prints and drawings section of the Louvre from November 7th 2009 until February 8, 2010 and will includes poetry, text, multi-media projects, and artworks selected by Eco to illustrate his chosen theme.

To my knowledge, this is Eco's first officially curated exhibition, though fans of his books On Beauty and On Ugliness already know him to possess an idiosyncratic and sensitive curatational mind. For those of us unable to make it out to view the exhibition in person, Rizzoli has kindly produced a lavish exhibition catalog to add to the already rich oeuvre of Eco's multi-disciplinary, highly-illustrated forays into philosophy and theory.

More on the exhibition, from the Louvre's website:

Having extended an invitation to Umberto Eco, who chose to work on a theme described as “The Infinity of Lists”, the Louvre presents an exhibition of ancient and contemporary graphic works, as well as around 20 multidisciplinary events in the auditorium and the rooms of the museum.

The exhibition “Mille e tre” traces the evolution of the concept of a list through history and examines how its meaning changes with the passage of time: from its ancient use in funerary traditions to its present-day use in everyday life, via the creative processes of contemporary artists, the list is a vehicle for cultural codes and the bearer of different messages.

Read the entire Spiegel interview with Eco--which contains many more pithy and insightful comments than the one I included above--by clicking here. More about the exhibition can be found on the Louvre exhibitions webpage by clicking here. Purchase the exhibition catalog, published by Rizzoli, here. You can see more about his other illustrated volumes by clicking here. Via Metafilter.

Art Opening at Observatory This Saturday: "All Sorts of Remedies" by Herbert Pfostl

Hope you can join us at Observatory for our second ever art opening: "All Sorts of Remedies," an exhibition by Observatory member and book entrepreneur Herbert Pfostl. The event takes place this Saturday, November 21st at 7:00pm, and is free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!

Full details below:

"All Sorts of Remedies," Herbert Pfostl
Observatory
543 Union Street – at Nevins
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Opening: Saturday, November 21st at 7:00pm

Exhibition: November 21, 2009 – January 8, 2010
Thurs & Friday 3–6pm
Sat & Sun 12–6pm

Small paintings as parables of plants and animals and old stories of black robbers and white stags. Fragments on death like mirrors from a black sleep in the forests of fairy tales. All stories from the dust of the dead in fragments and footnotes like melodies of heartbreak and north and night and exploration – breakdowns. About saints with no promise of heaven and lost sailors forgotten and the terribly lonely bears. The unknown, the ugly – and the odd. Collected grand mistakes, noble errors from many sources. Sinking signals – conscious or not – sonatas and last letters and great insults. The impossible tears in landscapes of ocean or stranded whales. A going far back to coals and cruelties and sobbing like songs in whiskey and blood. Of soldiers' last letters and all seven seas. With pirates and wars and prayers in holes in the ground. Of fallen women and orphaned children and drowned slaves and burned saints.

Herbert Pfostl is the creator of Blind Pony Books and the Paper Graveyard, and is also the buyer for the store at New York's New Museum.

Observatory is a presentation and exhibition space in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn. The space seeks to present programming residing at the interstices of learning and amusement, art and science, and history and curiosity.

Directions to the event can be found here. All images sourced from A Journey Round My Skull's post on the exhibition, which features many additional images and which can be viewed in full by clicking here. Click on images to see much finer larger versions.

Totentanz, Niklaus Manuel, 16th-17th C

Totentantz {German for "Dance of Death" or Danse Macabre} is the common title of a fresco by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch made in the Berner Dominikanerkloster, which the artist began in 1516/17. The sequence of images (80 meters and 24 scenes) was destroyed in 1660.What remains is a copy (1649) by Albrecht Kauw (1621-1681).

Via Jahsonic. More on the Dance of Death/Danse Macabre phenomenon can be found at this recent post.

Wife of Bluebeard? Photo, Late 19th or Early 20th C

Uncanny and delightful. Sadly, however, un-captioned.

Via, again, the wonderful Wurzeltod.

Antique "Cuppers and Leeches" Business Card, 19th C?

Click on image to see larger version. Via The Mouth and the Knife.

"All Souls’ Day," William Adolphe Bouguereau (1859)

Lovely mourning painting, courtesy of the incomparable Wurzeltod Tumblr Feed. Thanks, Suzanne, as always!

Super Sunday Brooklyn Lineup: This Sunday, November 15th

This Sunday, November 15th is going to be a big day in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn. First up, at 6:00 PM, Observatory will be hosting an illustrated lecture entitled “Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius” by author Colin Dickey. Dickey will discuss "the history of skull thefts and the motivations of their perpetrators, as well as tracing the long and bizarre odysseys of several famous heads, including those of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Sir Thomas Browne." Copies of his book of the same name will be available for purchase and signing.

Next up--and stumbling distance away--The Secret Science Club will be hosting their 4th-annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest at the Bell House at 8 PM, where spectators will be able to cheer on Obscura Antiques and Oddities co-owner Mike Zohn as he defends his hard-won championship garnered back in 2007; click here for a full report on that contest. Entry fee is waived for contestants, so bring along, in the words of the call for entries, your "beloved moose head, stuffed albino squirrel, sinuous snake skeletons, jarred sea slugs, and other specimens" and save $4.

This leads me to my humble proposition to you for a Gowanus-centric Sunday: why not begin your day's festivities at Observatory and join us in a group pilgrimage to the Bell House in time for the Secret Science Club Taxidermy Contest? To have 2 such wonderful events back to back--both $5 or under, both book related, and both simultaneously of an educational and a spectacular nature, with both also including alcohol (!!) and, best of all, walking distance of one another--is a rare treat indeed. I also offer to personally lead the way from Observatory to Bell House, so no-one need fear becoming lost forever in the toxic wilds of the Gowanus.

Full details on both events follow:

Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius
Date: Sunday, November 15th
Time: 6:00 PM, Doors at 5:00 PM
Admission: $5
Address: Observatory: 543 Union Street (at Nevins), Brooklyn, NY 11215 (View Map)
By Colin Dickey, author of “Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius” (copies of the book will be available for sale)

With the rise of phrenology, the early 19th century saw a host of bizarre grave robberies, in which the graves of famous men were plundered for their owners’ skulls. Both scientific curiosities and morbid fetishes, the skulls became subject to extended legal battles between religious and secular authorities over who owns these remains, while phrenologists continued to study them for visible proof of genius. Colin Dickey will discuss the history of these skull thefts and the motivations of their perpetrators, as well as tracing the long and bizarre odysseys of several famous heads, including those of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Sir Thomas Browne, who had famously written what a “tragical abomination” it is to be “gnawed out of one’s grave,” some 150 years before his own skull was plundered in 1840. Copies of his book, “Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius,” will also be available for sale and signing.

Colin Dickey is the author of Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius, and the co-editor (with Nicole Antebi and Robby Herbst) of Failure! Experiments in Aesthetic and Social Practices. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Cabinet, TriQuarterly, and The Santa Monica Review. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, he now lives in Los Angeles.

Directions
543 Union Street (at Nevins), Brooklyn, NY 11215

Enter Observatory via Proteus Gowanus Gallery

R or M train to Union Street in Brooklyn: Walk two long blocks on Union (towards the Gowanus Canal) to Nevins Street. 543 Union Street is the large red brick building on right. Go right on Nevins and left down alley through large black gates. Gallery is the second door on the left.

F or G train to Carroll Street: Walk one block to Union. Turn right, walk two long blocks on Union towards the Gowanus Canal, cross the bridge, take left on Nevins, go down the alley to the second door on the left.

The 4th-annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest
Hosted by the Secret Science Club @ the Bell House
Date: Sunday, November 15, 2009
Time: Doors open 7:30 pm, Taxidermy talk at 8 pm. Contest at 8:30 pm
Admission: $4
Address: The Bell House: 149 7th Street, Brooklyn NY 11215 (View Map)

• Calling all science geeks, nature freaks, and other rogue geniuses! Enter your taxidermy to win!

• Show off your beloved moose head, stuffed albino squirrel, sinuous snake skeletons, jarred sea slugs, and other specimens. Compete for prizes and glory!

• The contest will be judged by our panel of savage taxidermy enthusiasts, including Robert Marbury, co-founder of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists, and Dorian Devins, WFMU DJ and Secret Science Club co-curator

• Prizes for best stuffed creature, most interesting biological oddity, and more!

• Don’t miss the feral taxidermy talk by beast mistress Melissa Milgrom, author of the forthcoming book, Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy

• Plus:

◦ Groove to taxidermy-inspired tunes and video

◦ Imbibe ferocious specialty drinks!

Contest Rules
The contest is open to taxidermy (homemade, purchased, found), preserved and jarred specimens, skeletons, skulls, gaffs… and beyond. (Note: Wet specimens must remain in their jars.)

Entrants: Please contact secretscienceclub@gmail.com to pre-register, and arrive at 7 pm on the night of the contest to log in your beast or specimen. Share your taxidermy (and its tale) with the world!

Spectators are invited to cheer their favorite specimens.

Where: The Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues), Gowanus, Brooklyn. p: 718.643.6510 Subway: F to 4th Ave; R to 9th St; F or G to Smith/9th

When: Sunday 11/15/09. Doors and pre-show at 7:30 pm. Taxidermy talk at 8 pm. Contest at 8:30 pm!

Cover: $4 (waived for entrants)

Contest Background: The Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest is hosted by the Secret Science Club, an organization dedicated to exploring scientific discoveries and potent potables. The contest was started in 2005 by Secret Science Club co-curators Margaret Mittelbach and Michael Crewdson to shamelessly promote their taxidermy-inspired book Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger. The event has since taken on a life of its own, with first-year winners Andrew Templar and Jim Carden—co-owners of the Bell House—now providing a permanent home for this beastly annual smack-down.

To learn more, visit the Secret Science Club at http://secretscienceclub.blogspot.com

More info by clicking here.

Hope you can make it!

More on Observatory here; directions to Observatory can be found by clicking here. More on The Secret Science club here. You can find out more about Obscura Antiques and Oddities by clicking here.

Box factory photo (which houses Observatory and the Morbid Anatomy Library) found here; Squirrel Photo: Taken by and shown in a slideshow presentation by Brian Wiprud, the author who wrote Stuffed, Pipsqueak, and Tailed, books about adventure.

Morbid Anatomy Presents at Observatory: "The Culture of Curiosity" with Obscura's Evan Michelson, Friday November 13th, 8:00 PM

This Friday the 13th, Evan Michelson--co-owner of Obscura Antiques and Oddities, my favorite store in the entire world and closest thing that I know of to a Morbid Anatomy Giftshop--will be delivering a presentation at Observatory, Brooklyn, entitled "The Culture of Curiosity." This illustrated lecture will explore the contemporary popularity of Cabinets of Curiosity from her unique perspective as one of New York's foremost purveyors and collectors of medical, natural, and industrial curiosities. She will also be bringing artifacts from her personal and professional collection for your perusal and enjoyment. Evan is an excellent speaker, and I can't wait to see her official take on this ever-so-relevant topic. Hope to see you there!

Full details:

Morbid Anatomy Presents at Observatory
"The Culture of Curiosity"
Illustrated Lecture by Evan Michelson, Obscura Antiques and Oddities
Friday, November 13th
8:00 (doors at 7)
$5 Admission

The Culture of Curiosity is everywhere these days. Wunderkammer appear in popular art, cutting-edge fashion, film, books and museum exhibitions. This aesthetic has proved surprisingly durable and popular for over 600 years. From temple to home to museum, the Culture of Curiosity continues to exert an irresistible pull on our collective psyches, and it shows no signs of falling from favor any time soon.

Where did it come from? What is it’s continuing appeal? Why is it resurgent at this moment in time?

Let’s see if we can find out.

Evan Michelson is co-owner of Obscura Antiques and Oddities {obscuraantiques.com}, and has been buying, selling and collecting rare, beautiful and uncanny objects for many years. The shop opened in the East Village in 1991, and was a pioneer in the latest renaissance of the Wunderkammer aesthetic. She currently lives in Victorian splendor in Plainfield, NJ, in a cabinet of her very own.

Directions
543 Union Street (at Nevins), Brooklyn, NY 11215 (View Map)

Enter Observatory via Proteus Gowanus Gallery

R or M train to Union Street in Brooklyn: Walk two long blocks on Union (towards the Gowanus Canal) to Nevins Street. 543 Union Street is the large red brick building on right. Go right on Nevins and left down alley through large black gates. Gallery is the second door on the left.

F or G train to Carroll Street: Walk one block to Union. Turn right, walk two long blocks on Union towards the Gowanus Canal, cross the bridge, take left on Nevins, go down the alley to the second door on the left.

For more information about the event, click here. For more information about Observatory, click here. To join the Observatory mailing list, click here. You can join the Observatory Facebook Group by clicking here. For more on the fabulous Obscura Antiques and Oddities, click here; to visit their still nascent website, click here.

Image: Early 20th Century, life-sized wax mannequin residing in Michelson's home collection. Photos of this mannequin--as well as many other amazing objects from Evan's collection--can be found in my photographic exhibition "Private Cabinets;" You can view the entire series by clicking here.

Zoe Beloff in London

Zoe Beloff--personal friend, friend of Morbid Anatomy and Observatory, and one of my favorite contemporary artists--has a few wonderful sounding art-pieces showing in London over the next few months. If you are based in or near London, I highly recommend you take this opportunity to check out her work in person; Her work is lovely, multi-layered, fascinating, and seriously not to be missed.

Here is a bit about her work, from her artist's statement:

Zoe Beloff is an artist who is particularly fascinated by attempts to graphically manifest the unconscious processes of the mind. She is particularly adept at dreaming her way into the past. Zoe’s work has been exhibited internationally. Venues include: The Whitney Museum, MoMA, The Freud Dream Museum (St Petersburg), Pacific Film Archives and the Pompidou Center.

And here are the full details of her upcoming London events:

The Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society and their Circle 1926-1972
An illustrated lecture and screening by Zoe Beloff
November 18th, 2009 - 7pm - 8:30
The Freud Museum 20 Maresfield Gardens London NW3 5SX
Freud Museum: http://www.freud.org.uk
More here.

To celebrate the centennial of Freud’s visit to the great amusement parks of Coney Island, prior to his visit to Clark University in 1909, artist Zoe Beloff resurrected the forgotten world of the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society, along with the visionary ideas of its founder Albert Grass, for an exhibition at the Coney Island Museum in New York.

Here she will present an overview of the work of the Society, which might best be described as an urban legend. The members, working people from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, were filled with the desire to participate in one of the great intellectual movements of the 20th century. Beloff will discuss the Sunday lectures, plans to rebuild the “Dreamland Amusement Park” according to Freud’s ideas of dream formation, the controversy over the lost "Sigmund Freud" figure at the World in Wax Musée and will screen a number of the “Dream Films” in which members of the society recreated their dreams on film in an unapologetic and playful exploration of their inner lives.

The Magic Show
28th through 31 January
Opening 27 January 7pm to 9pm
The Quad
http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/
Market Place,Cathedral Quarter
DerbyDE1 3AS

Premiere of new Hayward Touring exhibition curated by Jonathan Allen and Sally O’Reilly, organised in collaboration with QUAD, Derby. Magic, like art, thrives in the gaps between truth, half truths and lies. ‘Magic Show’ considers how contemporary artists adopt the perception-shifting ploys of theatrical magic, to summon wonderment while also exploring questions of creative agency and the power of suggestion.

Magic Show artists: Jonathan Allen, Archive (Anne Walsh & Chris Kubick), Zoe Beloff, Ansuman Biswas & Jem Finer, Joan Brossa, Rick Buckley, Brian Catling, Center for Tactical Magic, Jackie & Denise Chapwoman, Tom Friedman, Brian Griffiths, Colin Guillemet, João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva, Susan Hiller, Alexandra Hopf, Janice Kerbel, Christian Jankowski, Annika Lundgren, Juan Muñoz, Bruce Nauman, Ian Saville, Ariel Schlesinger, Suzanne Treister and Sinta Werner.

You can find out more about these upcoming events, and about Zoe's work in general, by clicking here.

Zoe Leonard on the Uncanny Allure of Wax Anatomical Models

“I first saw a picture of the anatomical wax model of a woman with pearls in a guidebook on Vienna. She struck a chord in me. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. She seemed to contain all I wanted to say at that moment, about feeling gutted, displayed. Caught as an object of desire and horror at the same time. She also seemed relevant to me in terms of medical history, a gaping example of sexism in medicine. The perversity of those pearls, that long blond hair. I went on with this work even though it is gory and depressing because the images seem to reveal so much.”--Zoe Leonard, Journal of Contemporary Art

You can read the whole article--which investigates the use and meaning of wax anatomical models in the work of contemporary artist Zoe Leonard--by clicking here.

Images from original post; Top: "Anatomical Model of a Woman’s Head Crying", 1993 , © Zoe Leonard; Bottom: "Wax Anatomical Model (Shot Crooked from Above)", 1990, © Zoe Leonard

Calling all Collectors and Taxidermists! The 4th-annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest--Sunday, November 15, 2009! Brooklyn, New York!

I just received a call for entries for the upcoming 4th-annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest, hosted by the Secret Science Club. This year's contest will take place at Brooklyn's Bell House at 7:30 PM on Sunday, November 15. Entries can take the form of, in the words of the call-f0r-entries, "taxidermy (homemade, purchased, found), preserved and jarred specimens, skeletons, skulls, gaffs… and beyond." But--they are quick to note--"Wet specimens must remain in their jars."

To give you a sense of what you're in store for should you choose to attend (or, better yet, enter!), above you will find some photos from the 2007 installment of the contest, featuring Mike Zohn--co-proprietor of Morbid Anatomy's favorite store, Obscura Antiques and Oddities--and his grand prize winning piece, a Victorian "Polar Bear" Shadowbox (top 2 images).

Following are the full details for the contest. I will absolutely be in attendance, and plan to cover the event for the Morbid Anatomy. Hope very much to see you there, as competitors or in the audience!

The 4th-annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest!!
Hosted by the Secret Science Club @ the Bell House
Sunday, November 15, 2009, 7:30 pm, $4

• Calling all science geeks, nature freaks, and other rogue geniuses! Enter your taxidermy to win!

• Show off your beloved moose head, stuffed albino squirrel, sinuous snake skeletons, jarred sea slugs, and other specimens. Compete for prizes and glory!

• The contest will be judged by our panel of savage taxidermy enthusiasts, including Robert Marbury, co-founder of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists, and Dorian Devins, WFMU DJ and Secret Science Club co-curator

• Prizes for best stuffed creature, most interesting biological oddity, and more!

• Don’t miss the feral taxidermy talk by beast mistress Melissa Milgrom, author of the forthcoming book, Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy

• Plus:

◦ Groove to taxidermy-inspired tunes and video

◦ Imbibe ferocious specialty drinks!

Contest Rules
The contest is open to taxidermy (homemade, purchased, found), preserved and jarred specimens, skeletons, skulls, gaffs… and beyond. (Note: Wet specimens must remain in their jars.)

Entrants: Please contact secretscienceclub@gmail.com to pre-register, and arrive at 7 pm on the night of the contest to log in your beast or specimen. Share your taxidermy (and its tale) with the world!

Spectators are invited to cheer their favorite specimens.

Where: The Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues), Gowanus, Brooklyn. p: 718.643.6510 Subway: F to 4th Ave; R to 9th St; F or G to Smith/9th

When: Sunday 11/15/09. Doors and pre-show at 7:30 pm. Taxidermy talk at 8 pm. Contest at 8:30 pm!

Cover: $4 (waived for entrants)

Contest Background: The Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest is hosted by the Secret Science Club, an organization dedicated to exploring scientific discoveries and potent potables. The contest was started in 2005 by Secret Science Club co-curators Margaret Mittelbach and Michael Crewdson to shamelessly promote their taxidermy-inspired book Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger. The event has since taken on a life of its own, with first-year winners Andrew Templar and Jim Carden—co-owners of the Bell House—now providing a permanent home for this beastly annual smack-down.

To learn more, visit the Secret Science Club at http://secretscienceclub.blogspot.com

You can find out more about the contest by clicking here. Information about the Bell House can be found here. All of the above photos were taken by Eric Harvey Brown (Flickr handle "Dogseat;" click here to see his Flickr photostream) who also, coincidentally, took the fantastic photos for the Time Out New York piece on the Morbid Anatomy Library (click here.) For more about the 2007 taxidermy contest, you can visit the original Morbid Anatomy post by clicking here.

Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach at the New York Public Library, Next Monday, November 9th!

I know its rather twee of me, but I am a huge fan of Wes Anderson's work--well, to be specific, I am a huge fan of all of Wes Anderson's work except for his more recent live action film, The Darjeeling Limited, which I rather hated. But my hatred for that film has not in any way diminished my enthusiasm for the the rest of Anderson's œuvre.

On that note: I was quite excited to find out that the New York Public Library's fantastic "NYPL Live" series will be hosting a Wes Anderson event next Monday, November 9th, at 7:00 PM, which will feature Anderson in conversation with Noah Baumbach, co-author of the screenplay for Anderson's new production The Fantastic Mr. Fox and writer/director of the memorable film The Squid and the Whale. I just bought my tickets, $25 ticket price and Darjeeling Limited be damned! Hope to see you there.

Full info, including ticket purchasing information, can be found by clicking here.

Pictured above: Wes Anderson at Paris' inestimable Deyrolle Taxidermy and Naturalia shop, from the This Recording website.

¡Feliz Día de los Muertos!

¡Feliz Día de los Muertos! Images and sentiment via Ephemera Assemblyman; click here to see the original post and its many wonderful additional images.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank all of those who made their way out for the Morbid Anatomy/Observatory Dia De Muertos party last night. It was a truly great party, and would not have been without all of you! Thanks so much for coming by, for the participation, the costumes (!!!), and the altar treasures you left behind. And special thanks to Salvador Olguín and Cristin Cash--the co-hosts--and to Rebeca Olguín for the death piñata, the champurrado, the party invitation, and the sugar skulls. Thanks also to our lovely volunteers Nicole, Megan, and Ann. Here's hoping we do it again!

And Feliz Día de los Muertos to all of you!

Opening for Directorship, Glasgow Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery

The amazing Glasgow Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery is seeking a new director! Full info can be found here, via Biomedicine on Display.

Shown above is a photo from the Glasgow Hunterian; caption information reads: Anatomical preparation from the Glasgow Hunterian Museum, acquired or prepared by William Hunter (1718-1783). You can see more images from this and 10 other amazing medical museums by visiting the Anatomical Theatre on-line exhibition, which can be found by clicking here.