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We have quite a January and February lined up at Morbid Anatomy Presents. This week alone, we have an evening dedicated to macabre sites in New York ("A Dark Day in New York," tonight!); tales of ghost hunters centered on a Los Angeles-based "haunted hotel" with Morbid Anatomy Anthology co-editor Colin Dickey ("The Haunted Hotel: A Story of LA's Ghosts, and LA's Ghost Hunters," Tuesday night offsite at Acme Studio); a lecture on the tradition of reliquaries and Christian death rituals comprising part one of our Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry" series (Thursday night, "'Speaking Reliquaries' and Christian Death Rituals" with art historian Karen Bachmann); and a lecture on the surprising world of Medieval automata with Bryn Mawr professor Elly Truitt ("Medieval Robots: Automata Since the First Millennium," Friday night).

In the weeks to come, we have also a lecture on the spectre of the Apocalypse in Japanese anime films (Jan. 21); a lecture on the history of memento mori and death's head imagery (Jan. 24); death-themed science films in tandem with Imagine Science Films (Feb. 1); two insect shadowbox classes, including one special Valentine's Day edition (Feb. 2 and 10);  a raccoon head taxidermy class with rogue taxidermist Katie Innamorato (Feb. 9) a resurrection-themed art opening and fundraising party (Feb. 2); a Santa Muerte book singing and party complete with mariachi band, funeral flowers, mini-exhibit and wedding cake (Feb. 3); a newly introduced class on the art of Victorian hair jewelry (Feb. 5); Blake Schwarzenbach of the seminal punk band Jawbreaker on "death as muse" (Feb. 7); An illustrated lecture on the Victorian love affair with death doubling as a Morbid Anatomy going away party with artisinal cocktails by Friese Undine (Feb. 8th); and a valentine's day lecture and reading with Tattoo Scholars Anna Felicity Friedman and Matt Lodder (Feb. 14).

And, believe it or not, more to come, so stay tuned for that!

Full details follow on all events; hope very much to see you at one or more!
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A Dark Day in New York: Dispatches from The New York Grimpendium: Lecture and Launch Party for Book of Death-related Sites and Artifacts in New York
An Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing with J.W. Ocker
Date: Monday, January 14
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Produced by Morbid Anatomy
*** Copies of The New York Grimpendium will be available for sale and signing

J.W. Ocker spent a year traveling around New York, visiting some 250 death-related sites and artifacts in the state. A brain collection. A ship graveyard. An abandoned spiritualist mecca. And yes, even The Morbid Anatomy Library. For this presentation, he will be showing pictures and recounting some of the stories from from the darkest corners of the state.

J.W. Ocker grew up in Maryland and currently lives in New Hampshire. He is the author of The New England Grimpendium, for which he won the Lowell Thomas Award for travel writing, and the recently released The New York Grimpendium. He writes about his travels to strange sites around the country at his site OddThingsIveSeen.com.

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The Haunted Hotel: A Story of LA’s Ghosts, and LA’s Ghost Hunters
An illustrated lecture by Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty and Afterlives of the Saints
Date: Tuesday, January 15
Time: 8:00
Admission: $8
***Location: OFFSITE at Acme Studio, 63 N. 3rd St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn (MAP)
Presented by Morbid Anatomy and Acme Studio

Every city has its ghosts, and every city has its ghost hunters. But no city’s ghost hunters are quite like those that hunt in Los Angeles, home not just to haunted houses, hotels and theaters but to dozens of paranormal investigation “crews,” many of whom are trying to break into reality TV with the next hit Ghosthunters. At the center of much of this rivalry is the Aztec Hotel of Monrovia, California, just outside of Pasadena, which in the past few years has found itself the center of a bizarre battle over its paranormal legacy. Just who “owns” a ghost story, and its telling? Do the spirits even respect “turf”? Colin Dickey will discuss these questions, as well as the motivations of some of these ghost hunters, which range from the cynical to the inquisitive to the quixotic.

Colin Dickey is the author of Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius and Afterlives of the Saints and the co-editor (with Joanna Ebenstein, Morbid Anatomy Library) of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology, Volume 1. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Cabinet, TriQuarterly, and The Santa Monica Review. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, he now lives in Santa Cruz. This is a return visit for Colin, who has graced us with his presence on numerous occasions.

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"Speaking Reliquaries" and Christian Death Rituals: Part One of "Hairy Secrets" Series
Illustrated lecture with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
Date: Thursday, January 17
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
***Part 1 of a 3 part series "Hairy Secrets; Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry"

In tonight's lecture--the introductory lecture of a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--master jeweler and art historian Karen Bachmann will focus on what are termed "speaking" reliquaries: the often elaborate containers which house the preserved body parts--or relics--of saints and martyrs with shapes which reflect that of the body-part contained within.

Bachmann will examine these fascinating objects from an art historical perspective, and discuss their relationship to concepts of human body parts as icons of the immortal. They will be put into the larger context of Christian death rituals, in particular the veneration of saints body parts as sacred and magical relics. Also discussed will be the extremely odd proclivities of a variety of renaissance saints, such as Catherine of Sienna who drank pus from open sores. This will serve as the genesis in our further discussions of human hair, teeth, and nails as icons of the immortal.
Hairy Secrets: Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry is a series which will explore in lectures and a workshop the history of the preservation of human remains for reasons sacred and profane, culminating in the flowering of Victorian hair art mourning jewelry, or jewelry which incorporates the hair of the beloved dead.

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany & Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art & Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled "Hairy Secrets; Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry". In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

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Medieval Robots: Automata Since the First Millennium
An illustrated lecture with Elly R. Truitt,  Bryn Mawr College
Date: Friday, January 18 (PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE)
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Robots are everywhere. They build our cars, fight our wars, and clean our homes. Robots help us define concepts of humanity, explore the ethical ramifications of knowledge, and question the role of complex technology in our lives. Yet these liminal objects have a long history. Medieval robots, also called automata, appear throughout the Middle Ages in literature, art, courtly ceremony, and liturgical ritual. They could reveal the time of day or the date of your death, and they might be made by artisans or sorcerers. This illustrated lecture will explore these seductive, strange, and sometimes terrifying objects, and will uncover the hidden medieval past of our robotic present.

Elly R. Truitt is Assistant Professor of Medieval History at Bryn Mawr College. She has published articles in a number of scholarly journals, and is currently finishing a book on medieval automata. She also has a blog, called Medieval Robots. She lives in Philadelphia, PA and is left-handed.

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Bright Eyes at the Apocalypse: Exploring The End of the World in Japanese Animation
Illustrated lecture with JR Pepper
Date: Monday, January 21
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Having been confronted with extreme devastation during WWII, the Japanese have not been shy about illustrating the end of the world and post-apocalyptic landscape in their films. This can perhaps be most notably seen in their animation. Brilliant feats of Japanese animation like, Akira, Princess Mononoke, X/1999, and Neon Genesis Evangelion have painstakingly detailed worlds devastated by war, disease, technology and the fall of civilization. Why has the world of Japanese anime embraced such a macabre event? This lecture will examine the phenomenon of the post-apocalyptic Earth in anime as well as explore the current trends.

JR Pepper is a photographer, archivist and full-time geek.  Her photography had been shown at events throughout New York and Paris and a myriad of publications and websites. Presently she is devoting her time to photographing New York's nightlife as well as a continuing documentation of the eccentricities of Tulsa, Oklahoma, her adopted home. Her geek writing can be found on Pink Ray Gun.com and she has given panels  at New York Comic Con, New York Anime Fest, Salon Con, Big Apple Anime Fest and Tokyo in Tulsa.

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The History of the Memento Mori and Death's Head Iconography: Part Two of "Hairy Secrets" Series
Illustrated lecture with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
Date: Thursday, January 24
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
***Part 2 of a 3 part series "Hairy Secrets: Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry"

In tonight's lecture--the second in a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--master jeweler and art historian Karen Bachmann will explore the development of the memento mori, objects whose very raison d'être is to remind the beholder that they, too, will die. Bachman will trace the symbolism and iconography of the memento mori and death's head imagery in both Medieval and Renaissance art, focusing on jewelry. She will also discuss the development of the "portable relic" -- a wearable form of body part reliquary, will be the focus of this lecture. The importance of hair in contemporaneous art of the period will be addressed, as well as the development of bereavement jewelry with hair.

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany & Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art & Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled "Hairy Secrets; Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry". In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

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"All My Tomorrows," Directed by Sonia Herman Dolz: Film Screening with Imagine Science Films
Screening with Imagine Science Films
Date: Friday, February 1
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy and Imagine Science Films

Tonight, join Imagine Science Films and Morbid Anatomy for an exclusive U.S. premiere screening of "All My Tomorrows" directed by Sonia Herman Dolz. Imagine Science Films aims to transform the way science and scientists are portrayed in mainstream media, while emphasizing the importance of storytelling, narrative structure, and visual communication.
About the film:

"One must never forget that one dies not from disease, but from life," wrote the philosopher Michel de Montaigne. Five centuries later, cancer surgeon Casper van Eijck arrives at the same conclusion: "You get cancer because you're alive." This film follows Van Eijck as he goes about his daily tasks at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. We also meet a cell biologist, a night nurse, a pediatric oncologist and a pathologist. Examining a culture of rapidly multiplying cancer cells, the biologist sighs, "That you can reveal so much, but know so little about what's going on." We owe progress in medical science exclusively to unremitting human curiosity and attentiveness; the fundamentals have changed little since Hippocrates. Then as now, doctors relied on human techniques of looking, feeling and cutting. We also see patients and parents of sick children respond bravely to the devastating news doctors so often have to give. Perhaps mice will provide the answer to the question of why cells divide uncontrollably, because this animal shares 80% of its genes with humans.

Imagine Science Films is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in existence since 2008 committed to promoting a high-level dialogue between scientists and filmmakers. ISF encourages a greater collaboration between scientists who dedicate their lives to studying the world we live in and filmmakers who have the power to interpret and expose this knowledge, ultimately making science accessible and stimulating to a broader audience.
Imagine Science Films is committed to drawing attention to the sciences, whether it is through art or our community outreach efforts.

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Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop with Former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton
With Daisy Tainton, Former Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History
Date: Sunday, February 2
Time: 1 - 4 PM
Admission: $65
***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to class list (please specify date)
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

Today, join former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton for a special Valentine's Day-themed edition of Observatory's popular Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop. In this class, students will work with Rhinoceros beetles: nature's tiny giants. Each student will learn to make--and leave with their own!--shadowbox dioramas featuring carefully positioned beetles doing nearly anything you can imagine. Beetles and shadowboxes are provided, and an assortment of miniature furniture, foods, and other props will be available to decorate your habitat. Students need bring nothing, though are encouraged to bring along dollhouse props if they have a particular vision for their final piece; 1:12 scale work best.

Daisy Tainton was formerly Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History, and has been working with insects professionally for several years. Eventually her fascination with insects and  love of Japanese miniature food items naturally came together, resulting in cute and ridiculous museum-inspired yet utterly unrealistic dioramas. Beetles at the dentist? Beetles eating pie and knitting sweaters? Even beetles on the toilet? Why not?

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RESURRECTION 3rd Annual Observatory Fundraiser and Costume Party
Please come support us at our RESURRECTION-themed annual fundraiser costume party and group art show opening!
Date: Saturday, February 2nd
Time: 8pm
Admission: $20

Observatory has had quite a year, full of fires, floods, threats of floods, and much more besides. On Saturday, February 2nd, we cordially invite you to join us in celebrating our against-the-odds survival in the face of it all with our 4th anniversary back-from-the-dead-themed fundraiser. This party will also serve as the inauguration for our "Resurrection" group show, which will open to the public this evening.

The party will feature:

* Costume contest with Celebrity Judge Evan Michelson of TV's Oddities. Best "resurrection" costume wins!
* Screening of brand new episodes from  Ronni Thomas' Midnight Archive series
* Charm & handsomeship by MC Lord Whimsy
* Music by DJ Mangoose
* Kikkerland giveaways
* Glorious raffle prizes including a gift certificate from Palo Santo restaurant; books and CDs from green witch Robin Rose Bennett; Books and merch from Morbid Anatomy; Tarot readings by Shannon Taggart; Abraxas Esoteric Journal; Audiobooks from Hachette, and more!
* Artwork by Grace Baxter, Ben Blatt, Jesse Bransford, Ryan Matthew Cohn, Joanna Ebenstein, Barbara Ensor, Ethan Gould, Pam Grossman, Megan Hays, Katie Innamorato, Sue Jeiven, Megan Murtha, Rebeca Olguin, Katy Pierce, Sigrid Sarda, Dana Sherwood, Mark Splatter, Daisy Tainton, & Shannon Taggart
* Lots of booze & treats!  YES!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

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 “Viva la Muerte: The Mushrooming Cult of Saint Death” : Lecture, Book Signing and Party
Illustrated lecture by Professor R. Andrew Chesnut, author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint; Q and A moderated by The Revealer's David Metcalfe; Music and cocktails by Friese Undine; Santa Muerte and Jesus Malverde wedding cake and Funeral floral arrangements compliments of Tonya Hurley and Tracy Hurley Martin; Mini-exhibit of newly-donated Santa Muerte materials from the Morbid Anatomy Library; Live music by Mariachi Tapatio de Alvaro Paulino
Date: Sunday, February 3
Time: 7:00 (Doors at 6:00)
Admission: $12
Produced by Morbid Anatomy and Borderline Projects
*** Copies of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint will be available for sale and signing

On Sunday, February 3rd, please join us to celebrate the Morbid Anatomy Library's new acquisition of a large and spectacular lot of materials relating to Santa Muerte, a Mexican-based “cult” or possibly even a “new religion” which takes as its central figure a sanctified Lady Death. Literally translating to “Holy Death” or “Saint Death,” the worship of Santa Muerte--like Day of the Dead--is a popular form of religious expression rooted in a rich syncretism of the beliefs of the native Latin Americans and the colonizing Spanish Catholics.

Tonight's celebration will begin with a highly-illustrated lecture on the roots, history and worship of Santa Muerte by Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut, Chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint. Following, attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions during a Q and A which with the lecturer and death in Mexico scholar Salvador Olguín moderated by David Metcalfe of The Revealer.
Come early (doors open at 6) and stay late to enjoy special artisanal cocktails utilizing the favorite spirits of "The Boney Lady" herself, compliments of Friese Undine. You can also admire--and indulge in!--a special Santa Muerte and Jesus Malverde Wedding Cake compliments of our generous Santa Muerte artifact donors Tonya Hurley and Tracy Hurley Martin, and take in a temporary mini-exhibit of the amazing donations themselves. There will also be live mariachi music  by Mariachi Tapatio de Alvaro Paulino, gorgeous funeral floral arrangements by Emily Thompson Flowers, and Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut will be happy to sign copies of his new book Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint which will be available for sale.

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Class: The Victorian Art of Hair Jewelry with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
With Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
Date: Tuesday, February 5
Time: 7-11 PM
Admission: $75
***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to class list; 15 person limit
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

Hair jewelry was an enormously popular form of commemorative art that began in the late 17th century and reached its zenith during the Victorian Era. Hair, either of someone living or deceased, was encased in metal lockers or woven to enshrine the human relic of a loved one. This class will explore a modern take on the genre.
The technique of "palette working" or arranging hair in artful swoops and curls will be explored and a variety of ribbons, beads, wire and imagery of mourning iconography will be supplied for potential inclusion. A living or deceased person or pet may be commemorated in this manner.
Students are requested to bring with them to class their own hair, fur, or feathers; all other necessary materials will be supplied. Hair can be self-cut, sourced from barber shops or hair salons (who are usually happy to provide you with swept up hair), from beauty supply shops (hair is sold as extensions), or from wig suppliers. Students will leave class with their own piece of hair jewelry and the knowledge to create future projects.

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany & Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art & Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled Hairy Secrets:... In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

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Death As Muse: An Intimate Evening With Blake Schwarzenbach, Musician, Painter, Jawbreaker, Forgetter
Date: Thursday, February 7
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy'

From Dante to Donnie Darko perhaps no other idea has inspired more creative pursuits than life’s final act: death. Love, it could be argued, is a close second—and if that’s the case, let us bow down yet again to Woody Allen’s film, Love and Death.

Which brings us to the man at the darkened heart of tonight’s event: Blake Schwarzenbach, who has sampled a line from one of Mr. Allen’s films in a song. Schwarzenbach, you see, also knows from love and death.

As the singer, songwriter, and guitarist for the late, much-loved Bay Area punk trio Jawbreaker, Schwarzenbach once sang: “We met in rain, you asked me in, seemed like a good sign. Now I need a guillotine to get you off my mind.”?? With his newest group, Forgetters, he's gone darker.
How dark?

Here’s the cold data: Over 11 bloody tracks on the band’s eponymous–and somewhat psychedelic–new record, released in late 2012, there are roughly 27 lyrical variations on the word “death.” And there are multiple instances within just one song title: “O Deadly Death.”
That’s not to say Schwarzenbach doesn’t have a sense of humor. On an earlier Forgetters EP, after all, he cleverly made a verb out of tennis great John McEnroe (to throw a McEnroe is to have a very public fit.)

It is, in fact, the sui generis way Schwarzenbach balances light and dark, wit and warts, romance and rancor—both musically and lyrically—that makes his creative work so compelling. Or, as the writer Maccabee Montandon has put it: Schwarzenbach’s songs are “bounding, literate, often hyper-local anthems about pony-keg-powered house parties, girls he adored, girls he did not adore and books. Kerouac and cop killing live in a single lyrical line.”
On this evening, Schwarzenbach and Montandon will discuss the music, muses, and more: Schwarzenbach has grown increasingly interested in visual arts, painting and sculpting prolifically in his Brooklyn apartment; some of his pieces will be on display tonight. Following the conversation, Schwarzenbach will play solo acoustic versions of a few of his songs and take questions from the crowd. His own personal nine circles of hell revealed!

Image: "Impossible t-shirts" (a series). Blake Schwarzenbach. Pen, acrylic, graph paper. 2012.

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The Victorian Love Affair with Death and the Art of Mourning Hair Jewelry: Morbid Anatomy Going Away Party and Part Three of "Hairy Secrets" Series
Illustrated lecture with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann and Morbid Anatomy Going Away Party, with Cocktails and Music by Friese Undine
Date: Friday, February 8 (Formerly January 31; Please note date change)
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
***Part 3 of a 3 part series "Hairy Secrets: Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry"

The Victorians had a love affair with death which they expressed in a variety of ways, both intensely sentimental and macabre. Tonight's lecture--the last in a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--will take as its focus the apex of the phenomenon of hair jewelry fashion in the Victorian Era as an expression of this passion. Nineteenth century mourning rituals will be discussed, with a particular focus on Victorian hairwork jewelry, both palette worked and table worked. Also discussed will be the historical roots of the Victorian fascination with death, such as high mortality rates for both adults and children, the rise of the park cemetery, and the death of Queen Victoria's beloved Prince Albert and her subsequent fashion-influencing 40-year mourning period. Historical samples of hair art and jewelry from the lecturer's personal collection will also be shown.

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany & Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art & Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled "Hairy Secrets; Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry". In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

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Raccoon Head Taxidermy Class with Rogue Taxidermist Katie InnamoratoDate: Saturday, February 9
Time: 11 – 5 PM
Admission: $350
***SOLD OUT; Email morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to wait list
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

This course will introduce students to basic and fundamental taxidermy techniques and procedures. Students will be working with donated raccoon skins and will be going through the steps to do a head mount. The class is only available to 5 students, allowing for more one on one interaction and assistance. Students will be working with tanned and lightly prepped skin; there will be no skinning of the animals in class. This is a great opportunity to learn the basic steps to small and large mammal taxidermy. All materials will be supplied by the instructor, and you will leave class with your own raccoon head mount.

Rogue taxidermist Katie Innamorato has a BFA in sculpture from SUNY New Paltz, has been featured on the hit TV show "Oddities," and has had her work featured at La Luz de Jesus gallery in Los Angeles, California. She is self and professionally taught, and has won multiple first place ribbons and awards at the Garden State Taxidermy Association Competition. Her work is focussed on displaying the cyclical connection between life and death and growth and decomposition. Katie is a member of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists, and with all M.A.R.T. members she adheres to strict ethical guidelines when acquiring specimens and uses roadkill, scrap, and donated skins to create mounts.
Her website and blogs-
http://www.afterlifeanatomy.com
http://www.afterlifeanatomy.tumblr.com
http://www.facebook.com/afterlifeanatomy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/afterlifeanatomy

Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop: Special Valentine's Day Edition, with Former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton
With Daisy Tainton, Former Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History
Date: Sunday, February 10 (Special Valentine's Day Edition!)
Time: 1 - 4 PM
Admission: $65
***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to class list
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

Today, join former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton for a special Valentine's Day-themed edition of Observatory's popular Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop. In this class, students will work with Rhinoceros beetles: nature's tiny giants. Each student will learn to make--and leave with their own!--shadowbox dioramas featuring carefully positioned beetles doing nearly anything you can imagine. Beetles and shadowboxes are provided, and an assortment of miniature furniture, foods, and other props will be available to decorate your habitat. Students need bring nothing, though are encouraged to bring along dollhouse props if they have a particular vision for their final piece; 1:12 scale work best.

Daisy Tainton was formerly Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History, and has been working with insects professionally for several years. Eventually her fascination with insects and  love of Japanese miniature food items naturally came together, resulting in cute and ridiculous museum-inspired yet utterly unrealistic dioramas. Beetles at the dentist? Beetles eating pie and knitting sweaters? Even beetles on the toilet? Why not?

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Tragic Tattoo Tales: A Valentine’s Day Lecture and Reading with Tattoo Scholars Anna Felicity Friedman and Matt Lodder
Illustrated lecture and reading with tattoo scholars Anna Felicity Friedman and Matt Lodder
Date: Thursday, February 14 (Yes, Valentine's Day!)
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Love, loss… and disfigurement, murder, and flayed skin (with a bit of cannibalism and sadism thrown in for good measure). What better way to spend your Valentine’s Day evening than to join us for a glass of red wine, a bite of delicious chocolate, and a lecture on the history of tattooing combined with a reading of a series of historical tattoo-centered short stories by authors such as Roald Dahl (1958), Saki (1911), Junichiro Tanazaki (1910) and John Rickman (1781)?

Tonight, please join us for an evening with tattoo scholars Anna Felicity Friedman and Matt Lodder (both heavily tattooed themselves) who will lecture about and read tales that interweave tattoo history with romance and the macabre. Through illustrated slide lectures, Drs. Friedman and Lodder will present comparative historical material to provide context and deeper understanding and to separate fact from fiction. Learn about wide ranging tattoo topics in both Western and non-Western cultures and have questions answered that the stories raise. Did people really preserve tattooed skin? What were people reading about tattoos in the early twentieth century? Were Maori really tattooed head to foot? What were the connections between Ukiyo-e and Japanese tattooing in the Edo period?
And the stories… Come hear the account of a young Maori woman and an English sailor who had himself completely tattooed to gain her favor, only to be forcibly returned to his ship (in John Rickman’s 1781 travel narrative from Captain James Cook’s third voyage). Cringe at the tale of a businessman tattooed in Italy with an elaborate scene, but who was prohibited from ever showing it to anyone, swimming, or leaving the country (in Saki’s 1911 “The Background”). Shudder at the story of a Japanese woman lured into a tattooer’s studio, drugged, and forcibly tattooed (in Junichiro Tanazaki’s 1910 “Shisei (The Tattooer)”. Enjoy the fantasy of a young and not-yet famous Chaim Soutine who, during a bacchanalian evening, rendered a dorsal portrait of a tattoo artist’s wife that later mysteriously turns up as a “canvas” in an art gallery (in Roald Dahl’s 1952 “Skin”). Additional images related to the stories will be screened during the readings.
Chocolate and red wine will make things festive.

Anna Felicity Friedman has been researching the history of tattooing for over 20 years. Her recently completed PhD, from the University of Chicago, focuses on tattooed transculturites—Europeans and Americans who acquired non-Western tattoos as part of a process of cultural identity transformation. Her photoblog, Tattoo History Daily, offers glimpses into myriad aspects of tattoo history. An interdisciplinary scholar, she has taught, written, and lectured about body art, maps, rare books, and other sundry topics, works as a freelance curator, and currently teaches hybrid literature/film/art courses at the University of Chicago.

Matt Lodder is a London-based art historian. His work is primarily concerned with the history of Western tattooing and the artistic status of body art and body modification practices including tattooing, body piercing and cosmetic surgery. He writes regularly for Total Tattoo magazine, gives public lectures on tattoo history and related topics, works as a freelance writer and broadcaster for both radio and television, and teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in contemporary art and theory at the University of Reading and the University of Birmingham. He is currently writing a book called 'Tattoo: An Art History' for IB Tauris, due for publication in 2014.

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You can find out more about all of these events here, or sign up for them on Facebook by clicking here.

Image: Memento Mori-themed ecclesastical robe from a book residing in The Morbid Anatomy Library.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/01/macabre-new-york-christian-death.html

A friend of Street Anatomy’s since our gallery show in 2010, British photographer Richard Sawdonsmith has been working to expand his anatomical tattoos.  This has entailed extending the arteries and veins stemming from his heart tattoo on the front of his body.

A recent addition to Richard’s body is a full length back tattoo based on an autopsy scar inspired by Jeffrey Silverthorne’s photos of the 1970s.  Silverthorne is famous for his photos based on sex and death.  Take a look through Silverthorne’s photos here (NSFW).  His autopsy and morgue photos are particularly chilling, yet serene.

Source:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/streetanatomy/OQuC

I have never wanted a tattoo until this very moment.  These are just a few of the many gorgeous tattoos by São Paulo-based artist Gregorio Marangoni.  His style is so detailed and I love the tone he achieves with what looks like stippling on skin. The work speaks for itself and I urge you to take a look through all the tattoos on his site, blog.gregoriomarangoni.com!

[spotted by Rei Quinto]

Source:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/streetanatomy/OQuC

Pornographic peepshows and Walter Benjamin's Arcades project! Forensic photography by a former forensic photographer! Saints and torture as they related to anatomical representation! Human memorial tattoos! Macabre Victorian i3D, lecture and private collection demonstration!

We've got a great bunch of new events coming up at Observatory in July and August; full details (in date order) follow. To see them in a neater and easier-to-read form, please click here.

Hope to see at one or many of these spectacular events!

Radical Detectives: Forensic Photography and the Aesthetics of Aftermath in Contemporary Art
An illustrated lecture by artist and former forensic photographer Luke Turner
Date: Tuesday, July 13
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Forensic autopsy, crime, and death scene photographs hold a strong fascination in culture. These specific types of photographs present to the viewer a mediated confrontation with horror. In the context of a courtroom, there is a presupposition that the scientific or analytic use value assigned to the photograph will function to shift the viewer’s position from voyeur to detached collector of facts relevant to the legal system. Yet neither position is stable, and the psyche must contend with a complexity of vision that exceeds either classification.

In this slide show, artist and former forensic photographer Luke Tuner will present images from the history of forensic photography, slides from cases that he has photographed, and documentation of modern and contemporary art works that engage the viewer in the reconstruction process. Some relevant concepts explored by artists are crime scene reconstruction in Pierre Huyghe’s “Third Memory”, entropy in the work of Robert Smithson, accumulation in Barry LeVa’s pieces, the logic of sensation in the painting of Francis Bacon, something about that guy that had himself shot in a gallery, and many more. He will also discuss the curatorial work of Ralph Rugoff, and Luc Sante who have both made important connections between art and the forensic image.

Thoughts by philosophers of the abject/scientific, such as Julia Kristeva, Georges Bataille, Paul Feyerabend, Paul Virilio, and others, will be brought into play with the visual presentation. We will explore strategies of resistance to an “official” culture that attempts to legitimize a fixed methodology for the interpretation of evidence. As we emerge from art and philosophical tangents, the lecture will conclude with an argument for why the characters of Agent Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks and Laurent, the protagonist of Alain Robbe-Grillet’s The Erasers, personify two notions of the radical detective through their unconventional approaches to the interpretation of evidence.

Luke Turner is an artist / writer / gallery preparator, who previously worked for three years as a forensic photographer for various Medical Examiner and Coroner’s Offices. Luke has lectured at Glendale Community College in Los Angeles and at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. He is the recent founder of the art blog Anti-EstablishmentIntellectualLOL!.

Morbid Ink: Field Notes on the Human Memorial Tattoo
An Illustrated lecture with Dr. John Troyer, Deputy Director, Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath
Date: Tuesday July 20th
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

In 1891, Samuel F. O’Reilly of New York, NY patented the first “…electromotor tattooing-machine,” a modern and innovative device that permanently inserted ink into the human skin. O’Reilly’s invention revolutionized tattooing and forever altered the underlying concept behind a human tattoo, i.e., the writing of history on the body. Tattooing of the body most certainly predates the O’Reilly machine (by several centuries) but one kind of human experience remains constant in this history: the memorial tattoo.

Memorial tattooing is, as Marita Sturken discusses the memorialization of the dead, a technology of memory. Yet the tattoo is more than just a representation of the dead. It is a historiographical practice in which the living person seeks to make death intelligible by permanently altering his or her own body. In this way, memorial tattooing not only establishes a new language of intelligibility between the living and the dead, it produces a historical text carried on the historian’s body. A memorial tattoo is an image but it is also (and most importantly) a narrative.

Human tattoos have been described over the centuries as speaking scars and/or the true writing of savages; cut from the body and then collected by Victorian era gentlemen. These intricately inked pieces of skin have been pressed between glass and then hidden away in museum collections, waiting to be re-discovered by the morbidly curious. The history of tattooing is the story of Homo sapiens’ self-invention and unavoidable ends.

Tattoo artists have a popular saying within their profession: Love lasts forever but a tattoo lasts six months longer.

And so too, I will add, does death

Dr. John Troyer is the Death and Dying Practices Associate and RCUK Fellow at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. He received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society in May 2006. From 2007-2008 he was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Comparative Studies at The Ohio State University teaching the cultural studies of science and technology. Within the field of Death Studies, he analyzes the global history of science and technology and its effects on the dead body. He is a co-founder of the Death Reference Desk website and his first book, Technologies of the Human Corpse, will appear in spring 2011.

Echoes of Mutilation: The Saints and their Afterlives
An illustrated lecture by Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius
Date: Saturday, July 24
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

In the wake of the photos of Abu Ghraib, images of torture have been pushed back into the forefront of American consciousness, but Western history has had a long and complicated relationship with images of torture. Colin Dickey discusses images of torture in the cult of Christian saints, particularly Saint Bartholomew (who was flayed alive), Saint Lucy (whose eyes were gouged out) and Saint Agatha (whose breasts were cut off). Inverting the traditional relationship of torturer and powerless victim, Christian imagery turned the act of torture into empowerment, where specific methods of torture became iconically associated with specific saints. As the cult of the saints waned, these images of torture began to filter into European consciousness in bizarre and fascinating ways, appearing in everything from Renaissance anatomy textbooks to the paintings of Paul Gauguin to the feminist art of the 1970’s.

Colin Dickey is the author of Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius, and the co-editor (with Nicole Antebi and Robby Herbst) of Failure! Experiments in Aesthetic and Social Practices. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Cabinet, TriQuarterly, and The Santa Monica Review. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, he now lives in Los Angeles. This is a return visit for Colin, who lectured on Cranioklepty earlier this year at Observatory to great acclaim; more on that lecture can be found here.

Diableries, Medical Oddities and Ghosts in Amazing Victorian 3D!
An illustrated lecture and artifact display by filmmaker and collector Ronni Thomas
Date: Friday, July 30th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Tonight, join Observatory for a night of unique 3D stereo-views from the 1800s featuring HAUNTING double exposure ghost images, DISTURBING medical anomalies and the ever ELUSIVE french Diableries (or devil tissues)!

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

The Pornographic Arcades Project: Adaptation, Automation, and the Evolution of Times Square (1965-1975)
An Illustrated lecture with Amy Herzog, professor of media studies and film studies program coordinator at Queens College, CUNY
Date: Friday, August 6
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Walter Benjamin, in his fragmentary Das Passagen-Werk, illuminated the resonances between urban architectural structures and the phenomena that define a cultural moment. “The Pornographic Arcades Project” is a work-in-progress, seeking to build on Benjamin’s insight to ask what a study of pornographic peep show arcades might reveal about the cultural imaginary of the late twentieth century.

Motion picture “peeping” machines have existed since the birth of cinema, and were often stocked with salacious titles. Public arcades devoted to pornographic peep booths only began to appear in the late 1960s, however, although once established, they proliferated wildly, becoming ubiquitous features in urban landscapes. Outfitted with recycled technologies, peep arcades were distinctly local enterprises that creatively exploited regional zoning and censorship laws. They became sites for diverse social traffic, and emerged as particularly significant venues for gay men, hustlers, prostitutes, and other marginalized groups. The film loops themselves often engage in a strange inversion of public and private, as “intimate interiors” are offered up to viewers, at the same time that the spectators are called out by the interface of the machines, and by the physical structures of the arcades.

Peep arcades set in motion a complex dynamic, one that sheds light on wider contemporary preoccupations: surveillance videography and social control; commodification, fetishization, and sexual politics; debates regarding vice and access to the public sphere. Less obvious are they ways in which the arcades subvert far older fascinations, such as technologies of anatomical display and the aesthetics of tableaux vivants.

Amy Herzog is associate professor of media studies and coordinator of the film studies program at Queens College, CUNY. She is the author of Dreams of Difference, Songs of the Same: The Musical Moment in Film (Minnesota, 2010). She recently curated an exhibition at The James Gallery, CUNY Graduate Center on the dialogue between pornographic peep loops and contemporary art practices; you can find out more about that exhibition, entitled “Peeps”, by clicking here.

You can find out more about these presentation here, here, here, here, and here, respectively. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.