The Unrivalled Collection - The Hunterian's first catalogue

Hi all,

there's just enough time to catch the fab exhibition at the Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow - 'The Unrivalled Collection' - which is based on the first catalogue of the collections, composed by Capt John Laskey in 1813. The exhibition closes on 11th August...and there are some wonderful things to see...we could even revive the 'daft taxidermy' thread, that used to run on this blog a few years ago!
Here's a link to the exhibition:
The Unrivalled Collection
Kim Sloan, of the British Museum, visited the exhibition a few months ago and sent this fab image of the strange world of things to see at the Hunterian!
Mark.

Wild Things at the Hunterian! Picture courtesy of Kim Sloan.

Charles Waterton - satirical (daft) taxidermy at Wakefield Museum

Hi All,
the bar on the 'daft taxidermy' thread has been raised significantly.......the new exhibition at Wakefield Museum on the 19th Century naturalist and explorer, Charles Waterton, (it is an excellent exhibition by the way..I'd really recommend it) includes some really wierd specimens. The exhibition is more about the evolving discourse of the natural sciences (that is a deliberate pun!), and Waterton's activities as a naturalist...but dotted around the exhibition, and also in further exhibition spaces upstairs in the museum, are examples of Waterton's extraordinary (satirical) taxidermy...including this one, called 'The Nondescript', representing some kind of 'new species' (you can read more about it here on this taxidermy blog...which also has some more contenders for the 'daft taxidermy' thread...maybe we should leave that theme alone now, it's being done to death (pun x2)......anyway, another 'specimen' of taxidermy by Waterton, and also on display at Wakefield Museum, is this one representing, 'John Bull and the National Debt'.....very apt given the current financial climate...............Waterton's imagination is obviously locked into his own visual culture (I'm thinking of Punch here).....but even so, they are certainly worth a look.......as is the exhibition at Wakefield Museum.......
Mark
(all pictures are by kind Courtesy of Wakefield Council)

Dafter Taxidermy

The daft taxidermy award for this month goes to the Museo Municipal de Varadero, Cuba. Are dogs supposed to have eyebrows?

It also has an accidental vivarium.

 

Daft Taxidermy

Hi All,

Rebecca's excellent suggestion prompts me to post this for the 'Daft Taxidermy' thread. 'Put 'em Up!' It's from the Natural History Museum, New York...now that's pretty daft!

(I resisted posting a pic of DD...he's not in a 'proper' museum anyway, and actually I don't think he's so daft...)

Mark

More Gore

After seeing how sensitive Manchester Museum is to the debates surrounding the display of human remains, it was interesting to observe a very different strategy at York Museum. Human skulls are used in two exhibitions, one dealing with how objects are dated and the other about the Roman inhabitants of the area. Temporal distance and interpretation that makes the subject object seems to work against the kinds of re-sensitizing manoeuvres employed by Manchester. Perhaps this will change after the Museum closes for refurbishment later this year as the collection is reassessed. I don't feel able to offer a judgement as to which is more ethically sound, although I tend to agree that discomfort and provocation have their places in a museum context.

York Museum also takes this week's prize for daft taxidermy. I hope this becomes a regular feature.