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Mark Ryden "Virgin and Child (#93) 2010
You mostly likely know about this already, but I would be remiss if I didn't float out a little reminder: MARK RYDEN'S NEW SHOW OPENS TODAY AT PAUL KASMIN GALLERY!!! The exhibition is called "The Gay 90s: Old Tyme Art Show," and will be up through June 5th. Tonight's opening reception is from 5-8pm, and schmancy dress is highly encouraged (meat gown, anyone?). I am gutted to have to miss it, so if you do go, please have an extra drink for me.
Julie Heffernan "Self Portrait as Boy in Flight" 2010
She's baaaaaaack. Yes, one of the world's greatest living artists (and I say that without hyperbole), Julie Heffernan, has a sumptuous new show opening called "Boy, O Boy." It consists of her signature, fecund self-portraits, only this time she reimagines herself as a male youth. As someone who is guilty of gravitating toward female-focused works myself, I must say it is refreshing to see the idea of gender and art played with - and in such a splendidly beautiful way. The show is up at PPOW Gallery from April 29th to June 5th, and is absolutely not to be missed.
Christoph Mueller "Selfportrait" 2006
Christoph Mueller is best known for his beautifully craggy portraits of country and bluegrass artists and scantily clad ladies. But the work I'm digging most is when he ventures into more alchemical territory, with diagrams and lines and luscious latin phrases. Yum.
(And thanks to Acep Hale for the heads up!)
Fredrik Söderberg "The Beginning of Magick II" 2008
Phantasmaphile fave Fredrik Söderberg is back with a brand new show of gorgeous, warlockian watercolors. Taken holistically, it is a visual exploration of the history of European mysticism especially as it relates to death. There is a big emphasis on British belief systems in particular, and includes images of Avebury, pagan rituals, and infamous characters from The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The exhibition is called "We Pray to the Sun and Hail the Moon," and is up at Milliken Gallery in Stockholm through April 30th.
Bernardo Roman Palau "Yonder Self"
Oh, joy. My heart just swells when I look at the tender, imaginative work of Bernardo Roman Palau. I love his fanciful portraits of men and animals, and the brave range of his color palette, from the muted clay pigments to the vivid fluorescent pink. Delish.
Click on image or here to download full-sized broadside as seen above. Prints up to 11 X 17.
The "Congress for Curious People"--as detailed in this recent post on the Morbid Anatomy blog--will launch tonight with Evan Michelson's illustrated meditation on "The Saddest Object in the World" and continue through the week with nightly lectures on topics ranging from taxidermy to automata to the first American museum. On the following Saturday and Sunday, we will be hosting an epic 2-day symposium examining the collecting of curiosities, the history of ethnographic display and the interface of spectacle and education in 19th and 20th Century amusements, and the politics of bodily display in the amusement parks, museums, and fairs of the Western world. Full details for all events follow.
Important Note: All events will be co-presented by OBSERVATORY and Morbid Anatomy but will take place at The Coney Island Museum rather than OBSERVATORY. Half-price drinks till 7 will help make it worth-your-while for a little extra commute, as will the amazing lectures and symposium, not to mention the ambiance of the museum as lecture space.
LECTURE WEEK AT THE CONGRESS FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE
The Saddest Object in the World
An Illustrated Meditation by Evan Michelson, Obscura Antiques and Oddities and Morbid Anatomy Library scholar in residence
Date: Monday, April 12th
Time: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: The Coney Island Museum
“The Saddest Object in the World” is a meditation on one particular artifact; an exercise in Proustian involuntary memory, aesthetic critique, and philosophical bargaining.
Sometimes objects have consequences.
Evan Michelson is an antiques dealer, lecturer, accumulator and aesthete; she tirelessly indulges a lifelong pursuit of all things obscure and melancholy. She currently lives in another place and time.
A Rogue's Approach to Stuffing It: Taxidermy in Contemporary Pop, Art and Sub-Cultures
Robert Marbury of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists
Date: Tuesday, April 13th
Time: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: The Coney Island Museum
ave you seen a rise in taxidermy in the world around you? What could be causing this resurgence? A Rogue’s Approach to Taxidermy will identify prominent practitioners of natural history art; discuss popular trends in preservation, presentation and representation; and delve into the sub-culture of artistic taxidermy. Robert will also discuss the highs and lows of running a taxidermy art group, and offer suggestions on which emails to return and who to not let into your house.
Robert Marbury received his BA in Anthropology from Connecticut College and a post-Bac from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He is the co-founder of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists. Robert is currently curating a Rogue Taxidermy show which will run from May 7th to May 30th at La Luz de Jesus in Los Angeles. He lives and works in Brooklyn.
A Brief History of Automata
An Illustrated Lecture and Demonstration by Mike Zohn, Obscura Antiques and Oddities
Date: Wednesday, April 14th
Time: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: The Coney Island Museum
In this illustrated lecture, Obscura Antique and Oddities‘ Mike Zohn will demonstrate his 19th Century taxidermy automata, as featured in last year’s Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest. He will explain its curious mechanisms, and, in an illustrated lecture, will introduce us to the history of these fascinating uncanny machines, tracing their trajectory from tools of religious coercion to prince’s plaything to Disney’s imagineering experiments.
Mike Zohn is co-proprietor of Obscura Antique and Oddities. He fixes automata in his spare time.
A History of Taxidermy: Art, Science and Bad Taste
An Illustrated Presentation By Dr. Pat Morris, Royal Holloway, University of London
Date: Thursday, April 15th
Time: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: The Coney Island Museum
Should taxidermy be viewed as art, science, or bad taste? And why is it so interesting? Dr. Pat Morris’ illustrated lecture “A History of Taxidermy: Art, Science and Bad Taste” will explore these topics and more. His talk will range over the history of stuffed animals, considering how a small-time taxidermist business operated in the 19th century and exploring the many diverse and amusing uses of taxidermy and the taxidermist’s products ranging from major museum exhibits to stuffed pets, hunting trophies, animal furniture, kitten weddings (see above, Walter Potter, circa 1890s), frogs eating spaghetti and squirrels playing cards. He will discuss in detail the work of anthropomorphic taxidermist Walter Potter and his eponymous “Museum of Curiosities,” as detailed in his own lavishly illustrated book on that topic, which will be available for sale at the lecture.
Dr. Pat Morris is a retired staff member of Royal Holloway College (University of London), where he taught biology undergraduates and supervised research on mammal ecology. In that capacity he has published many books and scientific papers and featured regularly in radio and TV broadcasts. The history of taxidermy has been a lifelong hobby interest and he has published academic papers and several books on the subject. With his wife Mary he has travelled widely, including most of Europe and the USA, seeking interesting taxidermy specimens and stories. They live in England where their house is home to the largest collection and archive of historical taxidermy in Britain.
Charles Wilson Peale and the Birth of the American Museum
An Illustrated Presentation by Samuel Strong Dunlap, PhD, Descendant of Charles Wilson Peale
Date: Friday, April 16th
Time: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: The Coney Island Museum
Long time historian and editor of the Peale Family Papers Dr. Lillian B. Miller (now deceased) described Charles Willson Peale as a true renaissance man. Peale is perhaps best remembered today as the founder of America’s first cabinet-of-curiosity like museum–the Philadelphia Museum (later the Peale Museum)–which housed a diverse collection of botanical, biological, and archaeological specimens and can be viewed in the image above. Famously, Peale’s museum also pioneered the habitat group–or natural history diorama–an art form memorably perfected by such museums as the American Museum of Natural History and Chicago’s Field Museum in the early 20th Century.
In this illustrated lecture, we will learn about Peale the museologist, and examine how his museological work continuously overlap with his inventive, artistic, scientific, literary and exploratory interests. Peale was a friend or acquaintance with most of the military, scientific, diplomatic and foreign individuals who played significant roles in our revolutionary war and the early growth of our democracy.
CONGRESS FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE 2-DAY SYMPOSIUM
Date: Saturday April 17th and Sunday April 18th
Location: Coney Island Museum, 1208 Surf Ave. Brooklyn ADMISSION: $25 for full weekend admission
Presented by Morbid Anatomy and OBSERVATORY with Coney Island USA
The Congress for Curious People is a 2-day symposium exploring education and spectacle, collectors of curiosities, historical fairground displays and more, in conjunction with The Coney Island Museum. The symposium will feature panels of humanities scholars discussing with the audience the intricacies of collecting, the history of ethnographic display, the interface of spectacle and education, and the politics of bodily display in the amusement parks, museums, and fairs of the Western world. Also on view in the museum will be "The Collector's Cabinet," an installation of astounding artifacts held in private collections. In conjunction with the events at the Coney Island Museum, Observatory's Gallery space will host "The Secret Museum," an exhibition exploring the poetics of hidden, untouched and curious collections from around the world.
The Congress for Curious People will serve as an academic counterpoint to Coney Island's Congress of Curious Peoples, which Coney Island USA has convened since 2007 at Sideshows by the Seashore. In the past, the Congress has included performances by artists like Joe Coleman and Harley Newman, feats of strength, and world-record breaking attempts, among others. You can find out more about the Congress of Curious Peoples at www.coneyisland.com/congress.shtml.
Saturday, April 17th 11 AM-12:30 PM – Education and Spectacle in 19th and 20th Century Amusements, Lectures and Panel Discussion
Eva Åhrén, author of Death, Modernity, and the Body : Sweden 1870-1940
Andrea Stulman Dennett, author of Weird and Wonderful: The Dime Museum in America
Amy Herzog, author of Dreams of Difference, Songs of the Same: The Musical Moment in Film
Kathy Maher, Executive Director of the Barnum Museum
Moderated by Betsy Bradley, New York Public Library
LUNCH 2-3:30 PM– Cabinets of Curiosity: Collecting Curiosities in the 21st Century, Lectures and Panel Discussion
Joe Coleman, collector and artist
Johnny Fox, collector, performer, founder of The Freakatorium
Evan Michelson, Antique and Oddity Dealer, Obscura Antiques and Oddities and Morbid Anatomy Library scholar in residence
Melissa Milgrom, author of Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy
Mike Zohn, Antique and Oddity Dealer, Obscura Antiques and Oddities
Moderated by Aaron Beebe, Director of the Coney Island Museum
4-5:30 PM – Freaks and Monsters: The Politics of Bodily Display, Lectures and Panel Discussion
Mike Chemers, author of Staging Stigma: A Critical History of the American Freak Show
Nadja Durbach, author of Spectacle of Deformity: Freak Shows and Modern British Culture
Michael Sappol, Historian of the National Library of Medicine and author of A Traffic of Dead Bodies: Anatomy and Embodied Social Identity in Nineteenth-Century America
Moderated by Jennifer Miller, Bearded Lady and founder of Circus Amok
6-8 PM Drinks and light fare
Sunday, April 18th 12-2 PM – A History of Cultural Display in World’s Fairs and Sideshows, Lectures and Panel Discussion
Lucian Gomoll, University of California at Santa Cruz
Alison Griffiths, author of Wondrous Difference: Cinema, Anthropology, and Turn of the Century Visual Culture
Barbara Mathé, Archivist, American Museum of Natural History
Moderated by Aaron Glass, author of The Totem Pole: An Intercultural Biography and In Search of the Hamat’sa: A Tale of Headhunting
2 PM – Closing remarks
RELATED EXHIBITIONSThe Secret Museum
An exhibition exploring the poetics of hidden, untouched and curious collections from around the world in photographs and artifacts, by Joanna Ebenstein, co-founder of OBSERVATORY and creator of Morbid Anatomy.
Location: OBSERVATORY
On view from April 10th-May 16th, 3-6 Thursday and Friday, 12-6 Saturday and Sunday
Admission: Free
The Collectors Cabinet
An exhibition which will showcase astounding objects held in private collections, including artifacts featured in Joanna Ebenstein's Private Cabinet photo series of 2009. Featured cabinetists include Curious Expeditions and OBSERVATORY's Michelle Enemark and Dylan Thuras, Obscura Antiques and Oddities, and Morbid Anatomy and OBSERVATORY's Joanna Ebenstein.
LOCATION: * Coney Island Museum, Brooklyn
Image: "Femme à Barbe, Musée Orfila.Courtesy of Paris Descartes University.
To find out more about this event and the larger Congress of Curious Peoples--including nightly performances and the epic opening night party--click here. For more about the Congress for Curious People, click here. Click on image or click here to download a hi-res copy of the above broadside. For information about the Coney Island Museum--including address and directions--click here.
Big apologies for the very late notice on this, but I just found about it myself. Daphane Park has created a healing ritual installation at Honey Space called SUPERCONDUCTOR that is up through tomorrow, April 10th. I am going to try and get to it today, because it sounds too good to miss:
New York-based artist Daphane Park has reimagined Wilhelm Reich’s controversial orgone accumulator in Chelsea’s Honeyspace gallery, creating an organic “Superconductor” where visitors can gather with friends or meditate on their own while experiencing its many mysteries. Primarily composed of raw silk and cotton held together by steel wire, the welcoming tentlike space, a striking combination of deep red, pink, gold, and silver, feels as if it has an energy, a life-force, all its own, enhanced by a subtle but powerful electronic noise soundtrack by David Marshall, Rachael Bell, and Derrick Barnicoat. Incorporating holistic healing methods with shamanistic ritual, Park gives a performance every day from 3:00 to 6:00, using the architectural structure in addition to a pair of symbolic hammocks, a piano with lighted candles and a black skull on it, and a platform of old, broken musical instruments. The exhibit, curated by Karen Dorothee Peters, ends on April 10 at 7:00 with Lance White Magpie, a direct descendant of Crazy Horse, performing a special Lakota shamanic ritual set to live music. To fully experience “Superconductor,” which Park also envisions as a type of renewal, be sure to take off your shoes and go inside the installation, where you will feel like you’re experiencing another level of emotional and psychological consciousness.
(And thanks to my magnificent mom for letting my know about it!)
Brandi Strickland "Intuition" 2009
I am crazy about Brandi Strickland's mixed media pieces. In fact, I have coined a new word to describe them: colorious. Softly psychedelic and filled with mystical motifs, this is the kind of work that brings me immediate pleasure. She is also a super savvy saleswoman, as evidenced by her beautiful e-commerce shop, where you can buy originals and prints straight from the source.
Joanna Ebenstein "Femme à barbe," Musée Orfila. Courtesy of Paris Descartes University.
My dear friend and OBSERVATORY partner, Joanna Ebenstein of Morbid Anatomy, has a fleet of wonderful, curious projects launching this week. Please join for any and all:
Saturday, April 10th: Opening Party for "The Secret Museum" art exhibition at OBSERVATORY, curated by Morbid Anatomy's Joanna Ebenstein 7-10pm / Free
Opening party: Saturday April 10th, 7-10 PM
Exhibition on view from April 10th-May 16th
Gallery Hours: 3-6 Thursday and Friday 12-6 Saturday and Sunday
Please join us at OBSERVATORY for the opening party for our newest art exhibition, "The Secret Museum."
"The
Secret Museum" is an exhibition exploring the poetics of hidden,
untouched and curious collections from around the world in photographs
and artifacts, and curated by Joanna Ebenstein, creator of Morbid Anatomy and co-founder of OBSERVATORY.
Photographer and blogger
Joanna Ebenstein has traveled the world seeking and documenting
untouched, hidden, and curious collections, from museum storerooms to
private collections, untouched cabinets of curiosity to dusty natural
history museums, obscure medical museums to hidden archives. The
exhibition “The Secret Museum” will showcase a collection of
photographs from Ebenstein’s explorations–including sites in The
Netherlands, Italy, France, Austria, England and the United
States–which document these spaces while at the same time investigating
the psychology of collecting, the visual language of taxonomies,
notions of “The Specimen” and the ordered archive, and the secret life
of objects and collections, with an eye towards capturing the poetry,
mystery and wonder of these liminal spaces.
In tandem with this
exhibition, Ebenstein has organized a 2 week "Collector's Cabinet" at
the The Coney Island Museum, which will showcase astounding objects
held in private collections, including artifacts featured in her
Private Cabinet photo series of 2009.
"SECRET MUSEUM" ASSOCIATED LECTURES AND EVENTS:
The Saddest Object in the World
An Illustrated Meditation by Evan Michelson, Obscura Antiques and Oddities, Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in residence
Date: Monday, April 12th
Time: 7:00 PM / Admission: $5
LOCATION: * Coney Island Museum, Brooklyn
Taxidermy in the Fine Arts Robert Marbury of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists
Date: Tuesday, April 13th
Time: 7:00 PM / Admission: $5
LOCATION: * Coney Island Museum, Brooklyn
A Brief History of Automata
An Illustrated Lecture and Demonstration by Mike Zohn, Obscura Antiques and Oddities
Date: Wednesday, April 14th
Time: 7:00 PM / Admission: $5
LOCATION: * Coney Island Museum, Brooklyn
A History of Taxidermy: Art, Science and Bad Taste
An Illustrated Presentation By Dr. Pat Morris, Royal Holloway, University of London
Date: Thursday, April 15th
Time: 7:00 PM / Admission: $5
LOCATION: * Coney Island Museum, Brooklyn
Charles Wilson Peale and the Birth of the American Museum
An Illustrated Presentation by Samuel Strong Dunlap, PhD, Descendant of Charles Wilson Peale
Date: Friday, April 16th
Time: 7:00 PM / Admission: $5
LOCATION: * Coney Island Museum, Brooklyn
The Congress for Curious People
- a 2 day symposium on Saturday, April 17th and Sunday, April 18th at
the Coney Island Museum - $25 for the weekend Full schedule and info here
Museums, Monsters and the Moral Imagination
An Illustrated lecture with Professor Stephen Asma, author of Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads and On Monsters.
Date: Thursday, April 22nd
Time: 8:00 PM / Admission: $5
LOCATION: OBSERVATORY, Brooklyn
Experimenting with Death: An Introduction to Terror Management Theory
An Illustrated Lecture by Michael Johns, Former Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Wyoming
Date: Friday, May 7th
Time: 8:00 PM / Admission: $5
LOCATION: OBSERVATORY, Brooklyn
You can find out more by clicking here. You can get directions to OBSERVATORY by clicking here. You can find out more about the "Congress for Curious People" by clicking here. You can get on our mailing list by clicking here. You can join OBSERVATORY on Facebook by clicking here.
Why I need to get back to the UK soon, Reason #478:
Kensington Palace has been transformed with an installation called "Enchanted Palace," which consists of artworks and fashion with a magical point of view. Read about it and swoon:
Kensington Palace has been enchanted. Journey through this magical experience weaving contemporary fashion, performance, dreamlike installations and tales of the princesses who once lived there, all set against the backdrop of the magnificent State Apartments. In association with WILDWORKS and featuring Vivienne Westwood, William Tempest, Stephen Jones, Boudicca, Aminaka Wilmont and Echo Morgan.
A palace transformed:
Kensington Palace is being transformed. As the walls of the palace are being shaken by a £12 million renovation project the rubble and the dust is unleashing powerful and secret stories about the lives of Kensington's princesses.
At the heart of the Enchanted Palace journey is a quest for the seven princesses who once lived here. Their lives have been re-imagined as installations offering a fascinating interpretation of the palace’s hidden stories. The rebellious princess who ran from an arranged marriage into the arms of love. Sad queens who bore the pain and sadness of lost babies. The young heir to the throne who escaped the controlling grasp of her overprotective mother.
Visitors must use their eyes and ears to find clues that reveal the identity of the elusive royal residents. Guided by an enchanted map, the advice of obliging palace guardians and a few helping hands, their search will take them to all the hidden corners of the State Apartments and lead them to a glittering finale where they will at last meet the princesses face to face.Bringing the Enchanted Palace to life are the palace guardians, our expert front of house team and professional actors, who provide a personal insight into the strange world of the palace.
Sounds positively heavenly doesn't it? It seems like it will be up for a while, too, though not exactly sure of the end date. Hopefully I can see it for myself one day soon.
David Chaim Smith
Encountering David Chaim Smith's work was, for me, love at first sight. Drawing on the imagery of alchemy and Kabbalah, his works are obsessively detailed diagrams which explore mysticism and the life-force at large. I am giddy with anticipation at seeing his show which opened last night at Cavin-Morris. It's called "Blood of Space" and is up through May 15th.
Tomorrow at OBSERVATORY:
Chasing the Syncretic Tradition: Pulling Back the Curtain on the Visible World
Date: Friday, April 2nd
Time: 8pm
Admission: $5
Phantasmaphile presents this illustrated exploration of geometry with Martin Bland
In his words:
“The beauty of Geometry often defines the framework of the physical world about us. Objects we handle everyday are comprised of the same repeated ratios and their reciprocals. For example, the apple shown here, when cut in half horizontally, exhibits the Golden Section not only in its pentagonal structure but is also approximated (and even I was surprised to find this) in its growth ratio.
This talk will cover Number and its significance in the ancient world to the present day; Form, wedded to number through the first eleven polygons and their interrelationships; and further, Application, how one may use this information to comprehend and construct space and the objects contained within.
All simplified in an easy to understand form (no higher math is required), this talk is a general introduction into geometry using ancient methods and forms. Marshalling the power of these forms is possible for anyone, one must simply know where and how to go about looking. Although geometric constructions will be shown, the audience will not be “asked to approach the blackboard,” but rather to enjoy some of the author’s curious discoveries along his path towards creating his recent publication.
Though Post-Modernism seems to have failed us, the syncretic tradition is alive and well, as it always has been. The need to focus on what we find in common across various cultural traditions is more important today than ever. Geometry is the closest thing to a universal language that exists and its study as part of a syncretic tradition can be most useful in understanding the world of symbology that we find ourselves immersed in each day.”
About Martin Bland
Martin Bland is an artist who lives and works in New York. In April of 2009 he traveled to the Alhambra in Granada Spain to study geometry with Keith Critchlow. He recently published Useful: a step by step guide to the understanding of generative number in form (Pataphysical Longing Productions 2009) in which a series of polygons unfold, step-by-step, in a single diagram without the hindrance of text as is customary with such works. It is the only book of its kind in publication making it a valuable resource for any library. www.martinbland.com
You can get directions to OBSERVATORY--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library--by clicking here. You can find out more about OBSERVATORY here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.
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