Category Archives: Anatomy

Each year CPNB (CollectivePromotion Dutch Literature) organises the Dutch Book Week to promote Dutch literature. And every year a specific genre is being profiled. This year the(auto) biography is featured. This is translated in the theme ‘GeschrevenPortretten’, which translates in Written Portraits’. Van Wanten Etcetera created the campaign, which show the different faces behind the (auto) biographies. AnneFrank, Vincent van Gogh, Louis van Gaal and Kader Abdollah (writer of the biographic Book Week give away). Souverein made the artwork and did an amazing job creating realistic images. Even original book pages were used for the text inside the portraits to get right structure for each portrait.
Concept: Markus Ravenhorst, Maarten Reynen
Artwork: Souverein

[retrieved via behance]

Tonight, as night 7 of the Congress of Curious Peoples, we have a fantastic double header: magician and scholar Acep Hale lecturing on ""Legerdemain and Larceny'--a history of the con man--followed by a performance by sideshow talker legends Ward Hall and Bobby Reynolds onstage for the first time ever in Coney Island.

This is sure to be an incredible night! Full details follow; very much hope to see you there.

Acep Hale, "Legerdemain and Larceny"
Tonight, FRIDAY, APRIL 15th
CONEY ISLAND MUSEUM, 7:30 pm - $5

Coney Island, like most fairs, amusement parks, and midways has always had a reputation for hucksterism and the con job. Join magician and scholar, Acep Hale, as he explores the history of the con, taking the audience on a guided tour of the clowns, contrarians, murmurers and mystics that have held fast to lives of wandering wonder throughout the ages. Acep Hale is a street performing magician, musician, traveler, and rogue gentleman scholar. Driven by the 19th century belief in propaganda by deed he performs daily on street corners everywhere to prove that magic still lives around every bend, you don’t need a nine to five to stay alive, and hope springs eternal between the cracks of every sidewalk.”.

Sideshow Legends Ward Hall and Bobby Reynolds
Tonight, FRIDAY, APRIL 15th
SIDESHOWS BY THE SEASHORE, 8:30 pm - $15

Ward Hall (born 1930) has been around longer than anyone in the business and runs The World of Wonders Sideshow. He is "a modern-day P.T. Barnum and the last of the sideshow promoters. He's a national treasure who is loved and revered by showfolk, sideshow historians, and fans the world over."

Bobby Reynolds (born 1932) got his start at Hubert's Museum in Times Square and has been talking, performing in, and operating sideshows ...ever since. He still comes out of "retirement" every year or so to run shows all over the world. "With his two-headed babies, all frog band, and giant rat, Bobby has perfected the art of giving people the art of giving people what they didn't know they wanted."

Tonight, join Ward Hall, King of the Sideshow, and legendary side showman Bobby Reynolds as they perform

For more info--and to purchase tickets--click here and here.

This Saturday and Sunday, why not make the trip out to Coney Island to take in some lectures and spirited discussions on the topics of the questionable delights of immersive amusements, human anatomy on display from fairground to museum, science for public amusement, dime museums and their place in the 21st Century imagination, and scholarship as artistic medium, featuring a variety of inspiring scholars, collectors, authors, artists and practitioners, and all housed provocatively within the immersive amusement that is the Great Coney Island Spectacularium?

Why not indeed!

The event--called the Congress for Curious Peoples and co-curated by The Morbid Anatomy Library --features many of my favorite scholars, artists, collectors and bon vivants, including (but not limited to!) Mark Dion, Norman Klein, Mark Dery, Lord Whimsy, John Troyer, Evan Michelson, Mike Zohn, and Laurel Braitman; I will also be on hand to present a brief paper and take part in a discussion, and, of course, there will be a scheduled break to take in the Super Freak Weekend Freakshow downstairs at Coney Island USA.

This is going to be a seriously unmissable weekend. Full schedule and line-up for the Congress for Curious Peoples follows. Can't wait, and hope very much to see you there!

The Congress for Curious Peoples
Saturday and Sunday, April 16th and 17th
The Coney Island Museum
1208 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn

Saturday April 16th
10:00 - 11:00 Keynote Speaker
Norman Klein, author of "The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects"

11:30 - 1:30 "The New Curiosity": Scholarship as Artistic Medium
Mark Dion, Artist
Joanna Ebenstein, The Morbid Anatomy Library
Wendy Walker, author of "The Secret Service"
Moderated and introduced by Aaron Beebe, The Coney Island Museum

1:30 - 3:30: Lunch and Sideshow Visit

3:30 - 5:30: Immersive Amusements/ Scripted Spaces

Mark Dery, author "The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink"
Amy Herzog, author of "Dreams of Difference, Songs of the Same: The Musical Moment in Film"
Moderated and Introduced by Alison Griffiths, author of "Shivers Down Your Spine: Cinemas, Museums, and the Immersive View"

Sunday April 17th
10:00 - 12:00: The Fairground and The Museum: Human Anatomy on Display
Lisa Farrington, author of "Creating Their Own image: the History of African-American Women Artists"
Anna Maerker, author of "Model Experts: Wax Anatomies and Enlightenment in Florence and Vienna, 1775-1815"
Elizabeth Stephens, "Anatomy as Spectacle: Public Exhibitions of the Body from 1700 to the Present"
Moderated and introduced by John Troyer, author of "Technologies of the Human Corpse" (Forthcoming)

12:00 - 1:00: Lunch

1:00 - 3:00: The 19th Century Dime Museum in the Contemporary Imagination
Will Baker, author of "Multiple Meanings and Values in Johnny Fox's Freakatorium"
Aaron Beebe, The Coney Island Museum
D. B. Denholtz, editor of "Shocked and Amazed: On & Off the Midway"
Evan Michelson, Obscura Antiques and star of TV's "Oddities"
Mike Zohn, Obscura Antiques and star of TV's "Oddities"
Moderated and introduced by Andrea Dennett, author of "Weird and Wonderful: The Dime Museum in America"

3:30 - 5:30: Science and Technology for Public Amusement
Laurel Braitman, author of "Animal Madness" (forthcoming)
Fred Nadis, author of "Wonder Shows: Performing Science, Magic, and Religion in America"
Simon Werrett, author of "Fireworks: Pyrotechnic Arts and Sciences in European History"
Moderated by Lord Whimsy/Allen Crawford, author of "The Affected Provincial's Companion, Volume One"

Tickets for the weekend are $25 and can be purchased by clicking here. To find out more about The Congress for Curious Peoples, click here. To find out more about The Spectacularium, click here and to read some recent reviews of The Spectacularium, click here and here.

Special thanks to the Andy Warhol Foundation, whose generosity helped to fund all of these fantastic events.

Also, the lovely poster was designed by the incomparable Lord Whimsy; click on image to see larger more readable version.

Tomorrow night's double feature, featuring Ronni Thomas on Diableries and Johnny Fox of The Freakatium, will surely be amazing; full line-up of the 10-day Congress of Curious Peoples can be found here; hope to see you there!

Ronni Thomas “The Diableries and 19th Century Pre-cinematic Horror
Date: Tuesday, April 12
Time: 7:30 PM
Admission: $5 (or free with Congressional Pass)
Location: The Coney Island Museum (1208 Surf Avenue)

3D is very much in the news these days, and while Hollywood has finally come close to perfecting this technology for the silver screen, people are largely unaware that the Victorians were also aficionados of 3D technologies, and that this interest often took a turn towards the macabre. Tonight, filmmaker and collector Ronni Thomas will lecture on the history of 3D spectacles of the Victorian age, especially the infamous Diableries series–masterfully designed 3D stereo ’tissues’ created in france in the 19th century, backlit and featuring ornate scenes depicting the daily life of Satan in Hell (see image to left for example).Tongue in cheek and often controversial, these macabre spectacles give us a very interesting look at the 19th century’s lighthearted obsession with death and the macabre, serving as a wonderful demonstration of the Victorian fascination with themes such as the afterlife, heaven, hell and death.

In addition to the lecture, Thomas will display original Diableries and other artifacts from his own collection. Guests are encouraged to bring their own pieces and, better yet, a stereo-viewer.

Johnny Fox of the Freakatorium
Date: Tuesday, April 12
Time: 8:30 PM
Admission: $5 (or free with Congressional Pass)
Location: The Coney Island Museum (1208 Surf Avenue)

Magician, raconteur, and sword swallower extraordinaire will regale with tales of his long-gone Freakatorium and amaze the audience with wondrous feats of daring.

To see a full lineup of the Congress of Curious Peoples, click here.

Tomorrow night, why not consider joining me and Morbid Anatomy scholar in residence (and star of TV's "Oddities") Evan Michelson at Coney Island for her new lecture "A Gathering of Bones?" If her former lectures are any indication, this is sure to be a great one!

The event--which will take place within the newly opened Great Coney Island Spectacularium!--begins at 7:30. Drinks are half price at the bar until 8:00. Hope very very much to see you there!

"A Gathering of Bones," an Illustrated lecture by Evan Michelson
Date: Monday, April 11
Time: 7:30 PM
Admission: $5 (or free with Congressional Pass)
Location: The Coney Island Museum (1208 Surf Avenue)

Human bone: one of the most common materials on the planet. And yet, at one time the remains of certain individuals were prized more highly than the rarest, most precious metals and gems. The cult of the saints, the backbone of the early Christian Church, gave rise to an institutional fetishization of human remains that produced objects still unsurpassed in craftsmanship and opulence.

The aesthetic of the most humble and commo...n organic remains coupled with gold, silver, gems and textiles has for centuries proved irresistible to secular collectors and religious institutions alike. The ultimate collectible, the constituent parts of each and every human on the planet were once the object of obsession, veneration and murderous desire. As a collector myself, Christian relics provided my earliest exposure to the realm of transcendently beautiful, perverse and venerated objects.

The collection and categorization of human remains underwent a drastic change with the enlightenment, but the unquenchable human thirst for knowledge and comfort in the face of our own mortality has ensured that the corpus remains at the center of an unending human fascination with and confrontation of the greatest mystery of all. The gathering of bones continues to this day, still controversial, decadent and utterly essential to the human narrative.

This event is part of The Morbid Anatomy Library Collector Series.

Click here to purchase tickets ($5 each)

This event is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation.

Image: Galileo's finger mounted on a marble base and encased in a crystal jar, as on view at the Museum of History and Science in Florence, Italy. More on that--and image source--here. Click on image to see much larger, more detailed version.

This clever depiction of the mind of a monster was created by MotherJones‘ Dave Gilson and Steve Brodner. My favorite is the hopemine production in the Racial Ganglia.

For the full-sized image please click here.