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Tag Archives: curiosities
GUEST POST: A jar of pickled moles, haunting trees, Friday disasters and anatomy museum corpses- a smorgasbord of interesting things from curator Neil Lebeter
I am very excited to present today’s post, a bevy of fascinating things selected by curator Neil Lebeter. Neil is archivist curator at the New Art Gallery Walsall, where he is currently working with the very cool Bob and Roberta … Continue reading
Posted in Contemporary Art, Curiosities, Guest Post, History, Museums
Tagged curiosities, grotesque, haunting, installation, institution, moles, museum, outsider art, sculpture, textile, trees
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The bejeweled bugs of Hubert Duprat
The common caddisfly is a moth-like insect, found near lakes, streams, ponds and rivers, and often used as a bait for trout fishermen. Caddisfly larvae are aquatic, and spin protective silk cases which incorporate bits of material from their surroundings, … Continue reading
Posted in Contemporary Art, Curiosities, Ideas
Tagged art, curiosities, gold, imagination, insect, jewels, pearl, science
4 Comments
Agnes Richter’s embroidered straightjacket
Agnes Richter was a German seamstress held as a patient in an insane asylum during the 1890s. During her time there, she densely embroidered her straightjacket with words, undecipherable phrases and drawings which documented her thoughts and feelings throughout her … Continue reading
Posted in Curiosities, History
Tagged curiosities, History, institution, outsider art, textile, victorian era
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The weird and wonderful world of Walter Potter
While on the subject of macabre taxidermy I would be amiss without at least a cursory mention of the ridiculously interesting Walter Potter (1835-1918), king of bizarre anthropomorphic delights. A favourite among contemporary connoisseurs of the curious, Potter was a … Continue reading
Posted in Curiosities, Museums
Tagged art, curiosities, History, museum, taxidermy, victorian era
2 Comments
Birds in little sweaters: Annette Messager’s “Le Repos des Pensionnaires”
I adore this 1971-72 work by Annette Messager, Les Repos des Pensionnaires (roughly translated to “Boarders at Rest”). In this work Messager clothed dozens of taxidermied sparrows in tiny knitted garments, then carefully laid them out in natural-history-museum-style display cabinets. … Continue reading
Posted in Contemporary Art, Curiosities, Museums
Tagged art, bird, curiosities, installation, museum, taxidermy, textile
3 Comments
A strange humanoid creature: Charles Waterton’s ‘Nondescript’
I think that probably every person, at some point in their lives, gets the urge to make their own ridiculously interesting creature out of the shaved a** of a monkey. (Right?) Well this grim little fellow is the product of … Continue reading
Posted in Curiosities
Tagged art, curiosities, History, hoax, imagination, taxidermy
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