unsettling | The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things

Photograph of six wax figures and broken body parts damaged from fire.

Wax figures after the fire

27 November 2012 by Chelsea Nichols

I’m so unsettled and captivated by this incredible photograph of wax figures burnt and melted after the massive 1925 fire that destroyed Madame Tussauds wax museum in London. I think wax models alone are already pretty creepy, but I don’t think even the Chamber of Horrors can touch the pathos of this unintentionally gruesome scene. With missing heads and appendages, charred skin and clothing in disarray, the uncanny wax models truly look like the causalities of some great trauma. I’ve […]

Categories: Curiosities, history, Museums • Tags: body, figurine, museum, sculpture, unsettling, wax

Half of a taxidermy lion with gold dripping from it.

Opulent taxidermy made by Idiots

26 November 2012 by Chelsea Nichols

The Idiots are an artistic collective made up of Afke Golsteijn and Floris Bakker. They describe their work as “characterized by the use of animal material exquisitely sculpted into natural positions and combined seamlessly with rich materials such as embroidery and pearls.” Their work plays with all sorts of quirky taxidermy, such as the exposed fox spine of Thanatos and Hypnos (2011), the parrot headphones of Head Phones (Stilte!) (2009), or the slick oil drop bird in Oilbird (2008). However, I […]

Categories: Contemporary Art, Curiosities • Tags: animal, art, bird, curiosities, jewels, lion, sculpture, taxidermy, unsettling

Morbid kidswear ads

8 November 2012 by Chelsea Nichols

If you haven’t already seen it, I strongly suggest you read about the fascinating Hidden Mothers phenomena in Victorian photography, and its possible relationship to the tradition of post-mortem photography. Amsterdam-based fashion photographers/artists Anuschka Blommers and Niels Schumm have put a morbid contemporary twist on the history of this imagery, recycling the aesthetic conventions of hidden mother and post-mortem photography into a commercial kid’s wear fashion shoot. In the first part of Blommers and Schumm’s ‘Kidswear’ series, an anonymous figure […]

Categories: Contemporary Art, history • Tags: art, body, children, face, hidden mothers, photography, unsettling, victorian era

A cluster of rats

7 October 2012 by Chelsea Nichols

Categories: Curiosities, history, Museums • Tags: japan, museum, netsuke, rat, sculpture, unsettling

Curators cleaning an elephant skin at the Museum of Natural History.

Cleaning the elephant skin

12 July 2012 by Chelsea Nichols

My last post on the inflatable skins in James Lomax’s Untitled (Me and My Friend) (2011) reminded me of this ridiculously interesting series of photographs from the archives of the American Museum of Natural History. Taken between 1933-1935 by Thane L. Bierwert, they show museum staff engaged in the task of cleaning and re-mounting the skin of an elephant for display. As well as offering a great (and I suspect rare) behind-the-scenes glance of a 1930s natural history museum, that […]

Categories: history, Museums • Tags: elephant, history, museum, skin, taxidermy, unsettling

$Detail of James Lomax's sculpture of inflatable skins.$

James Lomax’s inflatable skins

11 July 2012 by Chelsea Nichols

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the preserved skins of exotic animals from faraway lands were brought back to Europe by explorers. The hides would be handed over to taxidermists whose job it was to prepare them for display by stuffing the skins and giving them a life-like appearance. However, the taxidermists often just had to guess at the shape and appearance of these unfamiliar animals based on crude sketches and descriptions, resulting in grotesque physical distortions which would […]

Categories: Contemporary Art • Tags: art, body, grotesque, inflatable, installation, sculpture, taxidermy, unsettling

Post mortem photograph of child on chair with hidden mother behind.

More hidden mothers in Victorian photography

5 July 2012 by Chelsea Nichols

Categories: Curiosities, history • Tags: death, hidden mothers, images, photography, unsettling, victorian era

125

Vintage advertisement for Mr and Mrs Bese Cuppers and Leeches.

Leeches! Leeches!! Leeches!!!

6 May 2012 by Chelsea Nichols

Leeches have been used for bloodletting for centuries. In fact, they became so popular in the 18th and 19th centuries that they were almost farmed to extinction in Europe. Although falling out of fashion in the later half of the 20th century, their medical use is making a comeback in microsurgery and reconstructive surgery due to the anti-coagulant properties of their secretions, which is useful for reducing blood clots and venous pressure from pooling blood, and for healing skin grafts. […]

Categories: Curiosities, history • Tags: advertisements, ephemera, illustration, images, leeches, medicine, nostalgia, science, unsettling, victorian era

E.J. Bellocq's photograph of Storyville prostitute with scratched out face.

EJ Bellocq and the Storyville prostitutes

12 November 2011 by Chelsea Nichols

Categories: history • Tags: art, erotic, history, photography, prostitute, unsettling

The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things

a collection of ridiculously interesting art, objects, ideas, and history

Tag: unsettling