“Dead or Alive” at the Museum of Arts and Design

By: Sarah Blumberg

Growing up in a house on a man-made lake in suburban South Florida provided me with more opportunities to explore nature than one might imagine.  There were tadpoles to be collected, snapping turtles and water snakes to be fished out of the pool, ducks and geese to be fed, and urban legends to be told of alligators finding their way through the neighborhood canals and into someone’s backyard.  There are two specific memories, moreover, that are particularly clear to me, both involving insects.  The first incident occurred during a short period of time when I was fascinated with feathers.  I badly wanted to be able to collect the duck feathers that could be found around the backyard, but was warned against it because of the very real possibility that they carried lice, and was instead consoled with unnaturally-colored craft store feathers that I nonetheless thought were beautiful.  The second memory is an even more pronounced one, involving my mom’s bug collection, which she began for an entomology class, and included a massive horned beetle that terrified me.  She would often keep specimens in the freezer, so there was a good chance that at any moment, there would be a dead bug in a jar just waiting to be discovered.  These two memories immediately came to mind upon viewing “Dead or Alive,” now on display at the Museum of Arts and Design, an exhibit that attempts to encompass the variety of the natural world, evoking a wide array of reactions along the way.

 

 

 
Shen Shaomin, Sagittarius, 2005, bone, bone meal, glue, 39 3/8 x 65 x 23 5/8 in.

 Image courtesy of the Museum of Arts and Design.

 

“Dead or Alive” showcases pieces from over 30 international artists, all of whom work with organic materials or objects that were once part of living organisms.  As a result, this exhibition is reminiscent of nothing so much as a natural history museum – the sort of place where you would find animal skeletons, tribal costumes, early examples of tools, precious minerals, and insect exhibits – except that there’s something not quite right about these displays.  The skeleton of a centaur, for example, in Shen Shaomin’s Sagittarius, was created out of found animal bones.  Then there is a tribal costume, Nick Cave’s Soundsuit.  It is one of many such outfits created by Cave that are, in fact, inspired by Haitian and African garments. Resembling a large enclosure made out of sticks, it is meant to be worn in a performance. And that insect exhibit? It's Jennifer Angus' Victorian Fancy, where the visitor must peer into windows placed around an enclosure, the inside of which features a wonderland of bugs, including an overrun, Victorian-style dollhouse and insects pinned directly onto the interior wall of the enclosre in repeating patterns, suggesting wallpaper.  I'm sure by now you can see where this is going; nothing in "Dead or Alive" is quite as it seems.

 

 

 

Simen Johan, Untitled #150, 2009, feathers, cocoons, sparrows, insects, foliage, taxidermy, cement, rock, wood, 36 x 36 x 36 in.Image courtesy of The Museum of Arts and Design.

 

It may have been Angus’ work that brought back the memory of my mom’s bug collection, but it was Simen Johan’s Untitled #150 and Untitled #159 that brought back the memories of wanting to collect the duck feathers.  While they look like nothing more than overstuffed roosters, Johan’s pieces are two excellent examples of why everything in “Dead or Alive” deserves a second look; their feathers are literally crawling with taxidermied birds, bats and insects.  Similarly, in Xu Bing’s Background Story 6, things are not quite as they seem.  The front of this installation, a frosted light box, displays an outsized version of the Asian scroll painting Rocky Dwelling, by Yanju Tu (you can see a copy of the scroll directly across from the work), with each brushstroke carefully reproduced as shadows on the glass panel.  At the back of this piece, however, you find that the brushstrokes have been created from the detritus of a garden, and that they are held together with tape and fishing line.  At first glace, the viewer would never suspect the chaotic contrast that lies behind this work.

 

 

Xu Bing, Background Story 6, 2010, wood and tempered glass, lightbox, natural debris. Image courtesy of Xu Bing Studio Blog.

 

 In addition to the many memories that “Dead or Alive” brought up, this exhibit also gave me the chance to finally get to see one of Kate MccGwire’s incredible pigeon feather sculptures, Discharge, which is just as stunning in person as all of the images of her work suggest.  I was also particularly taken with Susie MacMurray’s Flock, which consisted of a small padded room lined with rooster feathers, modifying the room’s sound and light.  Even though there is a guard stationed at the entrance of the room to make sure that no one touches the feathers on the wall, a container of them is provided for those who wish to add this tactile sensation to their experience of this installation.  Of course, not every work in “Dead or Alive” is as successful as one might expect for a show of this caliber, but I know that I will definitely have to go back for a closer look, at least one more time.  “Dead or Alive” is a fascinating exhibition featuring a wide variety of thoughtful and unexpected work. 

“Dead or Alive” at the Museum of Arts and Design runs through October 24^th

The Museum of Arts and Design

2 Columbus Circle

Take the A, B, C, D or 1 train to Columbus Circle/59^th Street or the N, R, Q, or W train to 57^th Street and 7^th Avenue

Museum Hours: Tues-Sun, 11-6; Thurs, 11-9

Exhibition Website: http://collections.madmuseum.org/code/emuseum.asp?emu_action=advsearch&rawsearch=exhibitionid/,/is/,/505/,/true/,/false&profile=exhibitions

 

Comments

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Don't know what is wrong what is rite but i know that every one has there own point of view and same goes to this one..