September 6 to October 21, 2000
"The first of all passions is wonder", wrote Descartes in 1649. Marvels, oddities, curiosities and anomalies of nature and culture continue to engender a sense of wonder. The historical wunderkammer or cabinets of curiosity have mutually fascinated us for a number of years.
Grotesque medical anomalies, uncanny biological oddities, zoological rarities, and extraordinary geological specimens were displayed in profuse abundance, side-by-side with unusual, rare, and exquisitely crafted works of art. The resonance of proximity and juxtaposition created a shifting array of associations and speculations. These polymorphic pre-Enlightenment collections were assembled before more scientific taxonomy and scholarly specialization rationalized the study and classification of objects. The multi-dimensional and non-hierarchical nature of the wunderkammer has many parallels in contemporary life, most notably in networking technology.
Wunderkammer: Wonderworks is a contemporary interpretation of the historical wunderkammer. We solicited submissions of relevant artworks as well as personal collections. Our sense of wonder, surprise, and delight in encountering and selecting these works is reflected in the surprising juxtapositions of the installation. "By re-examining the pre-modern model of the wunderkammer, we hope to shed some light on artists' post-modern concerns with collecting, indexing and archiving the Wonderful," Geraldine Erman and Eve Andrée Laramée, guest curators.
Exhibited artists include: Ray Abeyta, Stephan Apicella-Hitchcoc,k John Boone, Ralph M. Bourque, II, Carrie Cooperider, Josh Dorman, Takuji Hamanaka, Annie Herron, Patrick Jacobs, Kristy Knight, Laura Larson, Miranda Maher, Gabriela Micchia, Antonella Piemontese, Jeffrey Schiff, Bill Schuck, Howard Schwartzberg, Karen Shaw, Deborah Simon, Rodger Stevens, Mary Temple, Penelope Umbrico, Joanne Ungar, Jeffrey Wyckoff, Pablo Ellicott Yglesias, and Daniel Zeller.