Pages

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

"The Secret Museum" Exhibition Opening, Observatory, This Saturday, April 10, 7-10 PM

 

 

Our friend Joanna Ebenstein of Morbid Anatomy sent this announcement. (We're blocked from a lot of images, so I don't know if hers didn't make it to the post or if I just can't see them.)

 

This Saturday, April 10th, Observatory in Brooklyn, New York will be hosting the opening party for my new exhibition "The Secret Museum." The exhibition will run through May 16th. Full details and a few images from the exhibition follow. Hope to see you there!

 

 

Images top to bottom, left to right: Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Rouen, Backroom; Natural History Museum Backroom; "Femme à barbe," Musée Orfila. Courtesy of Paris Descartes University;Tim Knox and Todd Longstaffe-Gowan Collection, London; Archives 2009-015, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.

 

The Secret Museum 

Observatory : 543 Union Street (at Nevins), Brooklyn, NY 11215

 

Opening party: Saturday April 10th, 7-10 PM

On view from April 10th-May 16th

3-6 Thursday and Friday

12-6 Saturday and Sunday

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.

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 seek to document these spaces while at the same time investigating the psychology of collecting, the visual language of taxonomies, and the secret life of objects and collections, with an eye towards capturing the poetry, mystery and wonder of these liminal and magical 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.

 

ASSOCIATED LECTURES AND EVENTS
Congress for Curious People at the Coney Island Museum
2-day symposium exploring the idea of collecting curiosities in the 21st century as well as the politics, history, and changing methodology of collecting and collections. Also on view will be “The Collector’s Cabinet,” an installation of astounding artifacts held in private collections.

The Saddest Object in the World
An Illustrated Meditation by Evan Michelson, Obscura Antiques and OdditiesMorbid Anatomy Library Scholar in residence
Date: Monday, April 12th
Time: 6:30 PM
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 13th
Time: 6:30 PM
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: 6:30 PM
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 15th
Time: 6:30 PM
LOCATION: * Coney Island Museum, Brooklyn

Museums, Monsters and the Moral Imagination
An Illustrated lecture with Professor Stephen Asma, author of Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads andOn Monsters.
Date: Thursday, April 22
Time: 8:00 PM

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 7
Time: 8:00 PM

 

No comments: