Saved by Science

Justine Cooper, an Australian photographer, has created a series of large-format photos taken behind the scenes at the American Museum of Natural History. In the storage area rarely seen by the public, an elephant foot wanders out of a locker, a lizard is frozen in perpetual escape mode in a jar, a t-rex grins, and tiger pelts hang in a closet like so many last season's dresses. 

Unfortunately, I can't make the pictures any larger. If you would like to see a slide show of larger images, please visit www.justinecooper.com or www.seedmagazine.com 

The Curious Gaze returns with Tara Donovan

Untitled, 2003. Styrofoam cups, hot glue.

The Curious Gaze is back! And with a fascinating sculptor's work no less!

Tara Donovan is a Brooklyn-based artist who creates naturalistic yet otherworldly sculptures out of commonplace materials such as styrofoam cups, fishing line, and drinking straws. Here are a few images from www.acegallery.net although it is worth visiting the website because there are too many amazing images to post here. Never has Elmer's Glue and tempered glass seemed so lovely.

Untitled, 2001. Steel pins held together with friction and gravity.

Haze. Plastic drinking straws.

Nebulous, 2002. Scotch tape.

Utah Rocks (and more rocks)

Monument Valley in the rain

Straddling the corner of Utah and Arizona, Monument Valley lies mostly within the Navajo Nation. The scenery has become iconic thanks to John Ford's westerns and Ansel Adam's photos of the area. The day we visited the valley it was raining sporadically, and the classic reds and golds had become muted, the azure skies dramatic shades of grey. So here is a view not many see of Monument Valley, as it rains only a few times a year. 

More old and new walls in Montreal

This is a postscript to a note from last month, about the imprints and layers contained in city walls. Someone else also liked the traces of old structures left on new buildings, as seen is this parking lot on rue Saint Xavier in Montreal's Vieux Port neighborhood. Click on the photos to get a clearer view of the bricked-up windows. Across the street in another parking lot is a less intentional roof imprint:

Tout se transforme at the Quebec Triennale

Judging from the Triennale at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal, 38 artists in Quebec have been having quite a lot of fun for the past three years.

Adad Hannah's tableaux vivants in the Prado (see kissing photo above)use Valazquez's Las Meninas as a backdrop. The work includes video, photos, and a glimpse inside the making of (which destroys the mystery of the images a little in my opinion).

For pure viewing pleasure, I liked two photo installations: Chih-Chien Wang's smoky water themed photos of goldfish and Niagra Falls and Nicolas Baier's luminous black monolith of mirrors.

I have never laughed harder in a museum than in Karen Tam's installation, a cosy karaoke chamber composed of comfy cushions, paper cutouts, a microphone and a tv screen on which were shown various videos of English and French songs dubbed into Mandarin (not sure) and subtitled for your singalong pleasure in French, English, and possibly Cree(again, not sure...). you can view the videos here, but the experience is not at all the same.

a painter's painter

Lucian Freud is one of my all time favorite painters, although I have only seen a few of his paintings in real life.

I've seen a show of his etchings before, but missed the one at the MOMA in New York which has a good online catalog.