natural selection part two...

the counterpoint to the colorful surrealist models below were the circa 1900 artifacts of nature also dwelling the plant life section of the bergen natural history museum, pictured above. unfortunately between the low light, wavy old glass cases, and the depth of the shelves i wasn't able to get great images; but these early photos, hand written or hand typed scraps of paper labels, and fragments of real nature forms mounted on wood or paper, were like little poem objects.

they weren't like seeing joseph cornell's work as much as they were like peeking into one or two of his boxes of stuff. all were fragile, many were broken, discolored, and/or simply odd in terms of their display forms.

i just kept thinking that between the stuffed animals, the giant sculpted life size whale heart, the birds, the room of skeletons, etc. these little twigs and seeds felt totally quiet and alone.

if you like looking at things like this you should also regularly check out the wonderful woolgathersome blog...

natural selection part one...

some images of models related to trees from the natural history museum in bergen norway. the museum still has many areas that feel like 1900, and the rooms filled with animals in display cases felt like a real sideshow spectacle - complete with a stuffed duck billed platypus! unlike the queasy punch of this great hall filled with a horde of dead animals, a small section on the ground floor related to plant life contained some quieter cabinets of curiosities.

in these slightly gloomy and haphazard displays, there were many things to grab the attention of a sensitive eye; but the objects that stood out as the oddest were a series of plaster and painted models of seeds, spores, stems, etc. related to the biology of trees.

these strange and wonderfuly surrealist and martian-like structures verged on abstraction and felt like visual companions to the paintings of artists like arthur dove and georgia o'keefe - where the spiritual in abstraction and science have collided. i have to say, they were a lot more inspiring than most of the contemporary art i saw on the journey... i will post some other things from the museum soon.

(p.s. for those of you who asked about ant sounds, they've now added my recording to the sleppet site, see link a few posts below).