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"我慢" or "Gaman": to bear the unbearable with dignity and patience.

Order 9066 forced the sudden removal of Japanese Americans from their homes. Within a week, families were forced to sell their livelihoods, land, homes, belongings, and leave their businesses and communities. But for many of these individuals, musical instruments lasted as valuable belongings throughout internment camp periods—whether a small violin practiced by a young girl, or biwa and koto group lessons in an internment camp, music paved a path of cultural perseverance and served as a reminder to the Japanese American people of their humanity and connections through tradition.

With the spirit of “gaman”, music sang what Japanese Americans were encouraged to silence: an honoring of culture and tradition, a spirit unbreakable, and the humanity of self-expression.

These aspects of cultural diversity are inseparable from the American identity and thus force us to ask the same question today: Despite our diverse cultures, race, and nationalities, how can we support and recognize each other first as Americans?

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Japanese American internment victims and the tenacity of life and courage in music.

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Underwear: The Garments that Support Us by Liz Organ

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Underwear: The Garments that Support Us by Liz Organ

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Underwear is one of the few commons amongst cultures, ages, and genders. People have been wearing underwear for hundreds of years. But why do we wear clothes that are rarely, if ever, seen? For warmth, for hygiene, for style, for support, for modesty. As a slightly taboo subject, underwear is rarely talked about in society but the importance should not be overlooked.

While there are some differences over history, historical underwear has some similarities to the underwear of today. Usually made out of a cheaper, softer material, underwear such as shifts, petticoats, undershirts, and drawers, are washed more often than outer clothing to keep the most sensitive parts of the body clean. Corsets, stays, and bras help to support people’s back and breasts. Girdles, corsets, and binders also help to shape the body to society’s ideal standards, for better or for worse. Petticoats or slips help people cover everything they want to cover. And stockings keep our feet warm!

Underwear: The Garments That Support Us is taking a look at how these important clothes compare in the style, what they are made of, and how they shape the body. Placing an emphasis on what is normally hidden, we hope that you will also explore why underwear is so important to us.

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Fashioning Gender: Facts & Fiction of Victorian Dress by Devon Leigh

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Fashioning Gender: Facts & Fiction of Victorian Dress by Devon Leigh

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Think you know Victorian fashion? Think again! This exhibit takes visitors on a journey of comparisons and contrasts through costumes from films and television set in the Victorian era alongside actual clothing from the time period itself, each costume corresponding to an historical artifact. The historical pieces exist all across the timeline of Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901) while the costumes range from 1936 to 2001 in terms of the years of origin. The mix of film history and fashion history provides a unique look at the relationships between art and life. To enrich the view of these relationships, all of the objects in the exhibit are organized around a projected video of a performance piece put on by the exhibit’s curator, Devon Leigh. He explores the relationships between gender, clothing, and art as they existed in the Victorian period and continue to exist now and the horror that can be found in those relationships. This allows audiences to think of the Victorians as people like themselves instead of only as dramatic characters in stories on a screen. More than that, it prompts a closer look at the dynamics that might have shaped filmmakers’ choices, especially with regard to costumes. There is much to ponder in which parts of the Victorian era they chose as settings for films, which fashions they chose to emulate, and how accurately they mimicked those fashions. Of course, true and complete historical accuracy is not possible, as we do not currently have access to time machines, but there is still much to be gained by examining how much of an attempt at accuracy was involved in costume design. The exhibit as a whole encourages visitors to think about how performance and life intertwine, especially in the context of fashion history. Fashioning Gender: Facts and Fiction of Victorian Dress is about looking at the past not as a stranger, but as a friend who can tell us something about ourselves.

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Reimagining Tibet in Everyday Life by Yijing

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Reimagining Tibet in Everyday Life by Yijing

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This virtual exhibition serves as a material culture group show, celebrating the new voices of designers such as Grazzy, Angel Chen, and Dechen Yeshi, along with emerging Tibetan designer brands like thAly, Shardaa, and Norlha. Drawing inspiration from tradition and collaborating with local communities, Tibetan daily artifacts are reimagined through a series of design works, including clothing, accessories, outdoor gear, and household items. By showcasing traditional artifacts together with contemporary design works, the exhibition seeks to highlight the roots of inspiration for these designers, as well as to construct a narrative of inheritance, transformation, and innovation.

Through Everyday Objects , this virtual exhibition invites you to examine Tibetan Identity through the spirit of adaptability shaped by nomadic life, the practice of spiritual healing rooted in ancestral rituals, the power and wisdom of highland craftswomen, and the living philosophy of sustainability. As you move through this virtual space, a new story of Tibetan culture will unfold before you, where tradition and innovation continue to shape everyday experience.

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Witches have existed throughout history, and throughout our stories. This exhibit will explore where the depictions came from, how they are used in storytelling and examine what the characters represent. This exhibit is intended to educate everyone about witches in popular culture, and visitors should gain cultural literacy skills in interpreting iconic figures in popular culture.

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Which Witch:
Witchcraft Portrayals
in Media

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For as long as humans have made art, they have made art of cows. This universal subject spans across both time and distance, appearing in art on nearly every continent. For some, cows are sacred creatures, holding deep religious significance. For others, they are a person’s livelihood, providing milk and meat. Though each culture has a unique relation to these creatures, humanity’s love for our bovine friends remains the same.

Legendary Friends explores this relationship and how it has manifested all over the globe. From Africa to Asia, Europe to America, cows appear to be a constant in the human experience. Whether it is as a friend or as food, as saint or a symbol, cows hold a meaningful, and often overlooked, spot in our lives.

As you explore this exhibit, we invite you to look for the similarities in how each artist and culture illustrates their relationship with these beautiful creatures, as well as the unique characteristics each piece contains. What connections can you find as you explore? We hope this exhibit gives you an opportunity to celebrate our four-legged friends, as well as the common threads that bind us.

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Legends Unbound: Gods, Mortals, and Monsters by Jessica Iwuoha

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Legends Unbound: Gods, Mortals, and Monsters by Jessica Iwuoha

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Legends Unbound: Gods, Mortals, and Monsters is an ancient mythology exhibition dedicated to providing an immersive experience for all visitors. Come and explore the ancient myths through the art of sculpture.

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For millennia, mythology from various and different cultures has served as both a mirror and a map, reflecting human nature while guiding civilizations through the mysteries of existence. In Legends Unbound, we step into the mythic past of four great civilizations—Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Mesopotamia—to witness their legendary tales through art, artifacts, and storytelling. This exhibition unfolds across three realms; The Power of the Gods, The Trials of Mortals, and The Realm of Monsters.

These myths were more than just stories; they were expressions of faith, morality, and cultural identity. Their echoes still resonate in literature, film, and art today. Legends Unbound invites you to explore these ancient narratives, to see the faces of legend, and to consider why, after thousands of years, these stories still endure.

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Landscapes, lost: a c(ART)ographic look at our vanishing Earth by Thomas McNulty

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Landscapes, lost: a c(ART)ographic look at our vanishing Earth by Thomas McNulty

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For centuries, we have used cartographic materials to make sense of the world around us, be it marking territory or charting navigation routes. All the while, we drastically alter the landscapes we map. As representations of the Earth, cartographic materials chronicle the changes to our landscapes and our perceptions of them. Map-makers have the special ability to merge geospatial data with aesthetic design to tell a compelling story about our planet. This multi-disciplinary exhibition explores the confluence of the historical and the contemporary, the concrete and the artistic cartography of landscapes, lost.

Historically, cartographers drew imperfect maps. Most were well-intentioned, having access to limited information; some would give into deceit, inventing fictitious landscapes in exchange for legacy, like those portrayed in Brooke-Hitching’s The Phantom Atlas. With modern technology, maps and models render human-made alterations to the landscape overtime with piercing accuracy. These materials contribute to a growing archive of our vanishing world, like those in Brent Sturlaugson’s Archive of Lost Mountains. Contemporary artists adopt cartographic aesthetics to interpret landscape loss in ways ranging from the stoic to the vibrant, enticing us to see environmental fragility in a new light. In her distinctive seaweed and algae maps created for The Atlas of Disappearing Places, Christina Conklin aptly channels this idea.

The works in this exhibition help us to process complex emotions tied to environmental degradation; feelings like climate anxiety, eco-grief, and solastalgia (homesickness, but you’re still at home, and the environment is what feels unfamiliar). In processing these emotions, these works help to inspire within us a sense of agency, creativity, and spirit as we continue to grapple with our environmental future.

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a c(ART)ographic look at our vanishing Earth

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On the Edge of the City: Queer Artists in Hong Kong by Megan Lam

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On the Edge of the City: Queer Artists in Hong Kong by Megan Lam

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On the Edge of the City: Queer Artists in Hong Kong is an exhibition that aims to provide a global platform for Hong Kong LGBTQ+ artists to display their craft. As LGBTQ+ rights movements are continuously and actively progressing across the world, it is relatively behind and slow-moving in Hong Kong. As one of Asia's biggest global financial and cultural hubs, the city is catching up on the phenomenon, but it is still not enough due to different reasons such as conservative thinking, practices, societal norms, and policies. For decades, the fight for LGBTQ rights and acknowledgement of its community has never stopped. This exhibition aims to showcase the effort advocating for the LGBTQ+ community in Hong Kong, including their culture, self-identity, and topics concerning body, gender, and racial rights.

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Art practice is as free as it can be. It is often the only expressive tool for those standing in difficult positions yet endure and continue advocating and championing their beliefs. On the Edge of the City features 10 multigenerational Hong Kong LGBTQ+ artists embodying various approaches to contemporary art, including photography, painting, video art, etc. Through their crafts, the audience can learn about their identities and struggles, and what the world is like through their lens. This exhibition also aims to advocate for universal topics such as racial experiences and violence, and tell personal stories of fear.With the growing hostility and escalated conflict in the broad scope of humanity, On the Edge of the City wholeheartedly and undoubtedly supports the LGBTQ+ community and strives to be the healer, the vehicle, and the weapon that we have to advocate for universal rights.

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Living Art: The History and Culture of Body Modification

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Living Art: The History and Culture of Body Modification

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Since the beginning of human history, people have been marking their bodies. Adornment, spiritual practices, and medicinal benefits have kept these traditions of body modification thriving for millennia. But stigmas around tattoos, piercings, and scarification continue as religious and cultural groups decide what is acceptable body adornment, and what is not. These examples are seen throughout the exhibit, as many cultures accept piercings as an acceptable form of bodily adornment, while scarification practices are misunderstood by many Western cultures. From bamboo tattoo needles to modern equipment, from sacred designs to contemporary styles, this exhibit will take you through time and culture as people’s perspectives on body modification continue to change.

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Living Art starts with a brief history of body modifications, looking at who was adorning their bodies and why, from the Stone Age to Thomas Jefferson’s electric pen to early tattoo parlors. Then, worldwide body modification traditions are examined, such as the piercing culture in India and Papua New Guinea. The stereotypes and stigmas of body modification include assumptions about self-harm, criminals and prisoners, and freaks, which is the next theme, exploring how stereotypes form and change. The final theme explored is the artistic aspects of contemporary body modification practices and the stylistic changes in tattoos, from old school to fine-line, and piercings that have occurred in the past 50 years.

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People have been marking their bodies as a way of body adornment, spiritual and medicinal practices, and to mark outcasts for thousands of years. This exhibit will show how different cultures across time view body modification, and how each society assigns meaning. As body modification becomes increasingly popular, with the high demand for custom tattoos and body mod studios, it is important to remember our shared history and how communities have bonded over these practices. Stereotypes can be hard to overcome, as many are deeply embedded in our daily lives, but we hope that this exhibition opens your eyes to alternative perspectives on the history and culture of body modification.

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The Language of Darkness: Shadows as Social Commentary by Anya Lord

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The Language of Darkness: Shadows as Social Commentary by Anya Lord

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Shadows are silent, yet they speak volumes. They follow us, shape us, and bear witness to untold histories. Whether born of regret or trauma, our shadows mark our identity. But what happens when artists use shadows to challenge power?

The artists represented here take shadows to be a universal language. Throughout history shadows have been used for expressing collective pain, social struggles, and political unrest. They are foreboding and powerful, unequivocally indicating uncertainty, obscurity or understatement. Shadows provoke. From traditional art forms to shadow plays, they are visual metaphors found in numerous artistic traditions worldwide. From Contemporary artists, like Kara Walker to traditional art forms otherwise on the brink of extinction, humanity has a history of using shadows to facilitate understanding.

The Language of Darkness transforms the space and the visitor, sparking deep conversations and lasting connections. The works selected represent shadows exploring politics and protest, trauma and memory, transformation and identity, as well as storytelling and legacy. See how shadows create powerful symbols of protest, and experience the nature of memories that emerge from them.

As you wander through this virtual space think about how your own identities fit in and reflect the pieces. Let yourself become a part of the artwork!

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This site explores the history, culture, and significance of Korean alcohol, tracing its origins and evolution over the centuries. From its early introduction, Korean alcohol became deeply embedded in Korean traditions, playing a role in rituals, celebrations and social gatherings. By highlighting the role of alcohol in shaping the identities and customs of the Korean people, this exhibition offers a meaningful connection to the cultural heritage. Our goal is to not only showcase the historical journey of Korean alcohol but also foster a deeper understanding of the Korean people’s identity and the traditions that continue to shape their daily lives.

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Pills, Patches, and Problems: Navigating Modern Medicine

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Pills, Patches, and Problems: Navigating Modern Medicine

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This exhibit reflects the current state of healthcare in the United States, with a focus on women's health, LGBTQ+ health, vaccination, and alternative medicine. It invites viewers to consider how our bodies become political landscapes — shaped and restricted by policy decisions that determine the care we are allowed to receive.

We are entering an era where the future of healthcare is once again being redefined. Through a historical lens, this exhibit examines how these shifts affect millions of Americans struggling with systemic barriers to access.

Each topic in the exhibit connects past and present, using artifacts and objects to trace how personal and collective choices ripple forward, creating a “butterfly effect” in our healthcare systems and individual lives.

This exhibit will take visitors through trending topics within the scope of modern medicine to highlight both shared experiences and unique challenges across communities. In bringing together these topics, it fosters conversations and emboldens communities to participate in open discussion in an exchange of thought and stories.

History is happening now. Healthcare is not just a medical issue—it’s a social one. Understanding others' lived experiences helps build compassion and awareness. Central to these stories is the right to make choices about one's own body.

The COVID-19 pandemic turned the decision to get vaccinated into a political debate.

The fight for reproductive rights has been a decades-old challenge that continues to be threatened.

LGBTQ+ individuals often face dismissal in medical spaces, leading to neglect and poor care.

With rising costs and limited access, many Americans are turning to alternative treatments out of necessity

This exhibit brings these realities into focus, encouraging visitors to reflect, relate, and rethink the future of health in America.

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Tramp to Camp: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the U.S.

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Tramp to Camp: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the U.S.

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On an average night in 2023, over 256,000 people across the United States committed the same crime:
sleeping outdoors without shelter.

Despite centuries of legislation punishing the unhoused, homelessness rates continue to rise, especially in Washington.

Anti-homelessness legislation restricts the Constitutional rights and freedoms guaranteed to all Americans based on discriminatory stereotypes that characterize unhoused people as second-class citizens. From colonial warning-out laws to modern encampment bans, law enforcement has been used to keep those experiencing homelessness out of sight and out of mind, in hopes that doing so would protect the rest of society. But how do we determine who is worthy of protection and assistance?

This exhibition explores the laws that have regulated and restricted life-sustaining activities for people experiencing homelessness in the United States for the past 250 years. By examining the ways in which Americans have historically treated our most vulnerable, we can also observe how our attitudes about human dignity and deservedness have changed over time.

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As the housing crisis persists, so does the assumption that housing insecurity is the consequence of personal faults and poor choices.

Tramp to Camp seeks to prove otherwise:

the housing crisis is the result of our collective faults, of our reluctance to care for one another.

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O Lord Don't You Cry For Me; An Ode to the African American Elder's Praise of Death 

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O Lord Don't You Cry For Me; An Ode to the African American Elder's Praise of Death 

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The perception of death, a reckoning associated with grief and the conclusion of one's livelihood takes a unique viewpoint within the African American community.

Throughout the African American diaspora, the attitude towards death is treated with reverence and utmost care sourcing back hundreds of years of entwined cultural practices. In this instance, for the elderly among this community, there are those who find immense comfort in the subject and with that attempt their own veneration practices to it as those before them.

The items displayed within this exhibit depicts an ode to death deeply inspired by the curator grandmother, someone noted to revere the issue highly. The heart of this exhibit means honoring the defiant collection of grace on display amiss the sparse respite America history recalls. Each piece inside this exhibit pays homage to the perception of cultural death practices, its folklore, the memory, and wisdom that tethers both past and present memorialization of death within the Black community.

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Phantasm: spirituality & abstraction by Izzy Dunn

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Phantasm: spirituality & abstraction by Izzy Dunn

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This is a showcase of five women, Georgiana Houghton, Hilma af Klint, Agnes Lawrence Pelton, Emma Kunz, and Hilla Rebay, all abstract artists whose work was directly inspired by their own spiritual practices, some of whom predate those artists we typically see as the progenitors of abstract art. This exhibition is divided into five rooms, each section exploring the approaches of one artist and how she used her spiritual connections to create beautiful works of abstract art.

From Theosophy and Christian Spiritualism, to Agni Yoga and Buddhism, to séances and radiesthesia, the beliefs of these women were wide-ranging and disparate, and these differences are reflected in their work. Today, we seem to be more and more divided every day along lines of religion and spirituality. But these five, who were all so different in their spiritual practices, all found an outlet for their inner selves in abstract art, bringing them together.

The word “phantasm” here means something that is apparently seen, but that has no physical reality. As you peruse each section, think about your own spiritual life, whether that life is informed by religion or simply a belief that there is something more to the world around us that we can sense, but cannot see. How are these five women similar and different from each other? From yourself? Abstraction is perhaps the most subjective art form, so use your own experiences to inform your time with this exhibition and try to find something you have never seen or thought of before.

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This exhibition is intended for educational use only. I do not own the rights to any of the images used.

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The Qiang: Transformation, Tradition, and Reinvention by Zhiyue Chen

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The Qiang: Transformation, Tradition, and Reinvention by Zhiyue Chen

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What does it mean to belong?

To be part of a culture shaped not only by choice, but also by forces beyond one’s control?

The Qiang: Transformation, Tradition, and Reinvention invites you into the evolving story of the Qiang people—an ethnic group in China whose identity has been molded by shifting histories, spiritual landscapes, and the resilience of a community facing change.

For over 3,000 years, the Qiang have lived on the edges of empires and definitions, navigating their cultural existence between classification and self-determination. Their faith blends Daoism, Buddhism, and local traditions; their connection to land carries both meaning and fragility.

Through four themes—history, faith, women in tradition, and the transformation wrought by disaster—this bilingual exhibition offers archival photographs, ritual objects, textiles, and oral histories. Each artifact reveals a story not frozen in time, but alive with complexity.

Rather than offering answers, this exhibition invites reflection: How do identities endure, adapt, and re-emerge in the currents of history?

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Terrible Claw: The Dinosaur that Changed the World by Neil G. Pezzoni

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Terrible Claw: The Dinosaur that Changed the World by Neil G. Pezzoni

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Imagine you’re in the Cretaceous Period, 110 million years ago. ​Navigating through the dense undergrowth of Montana’s lowland swamps, you hear nothing but the drone of insects and the rustling of nearby leaves. Out of the corner of your eye, you catch flashes of feathers and teeth. You’re being watched by a dinosaur. Another movement along the leaf litter, and you glimpse a vicious weapon on your pursuer’s inner toe, poised above the ground: a terrible claw.

Imagine you’re in 1964, scouring the Badlands at the dawn of a hot summer day. You’re in search of dinosaur fossils, and you have already stumbled upon some encouraging fragments: long hand bones, unusually reminiscent of birds, and a few sharp serrated teeth. Then you see something new poking out of the ground, something no human had ever laid eyes upon: a terrible claw.

Imagine you’re in 1993, just leaving the theater after a night of prehistoric shock and awe. The thrills, the chills, you just witnessed an unforgettable blockbuster movie courtesy of Steven Spielberg. You're going to have nightmares about those especially nasty monsters with the terrible claws. What were they called, again?

Terrible Claw is a tribute to an invisible icon of paleontology, a catalyst for scientific revolution, a dinosaur which redefined everything we thought we knew about dinosaurs: Deinonychus. Discover the real animal which inspired Jurassic Park, and the groundbreaking research which reveals its life and legacy.

Paleontology is an evolving science, in the midst of a revolution decades in the making. Thanks to Deinonychus, we now know that dinosaurs were active, hot-blooded animals with complex behaviors and biologies. The last of the dinosaurs, close cousins of Deinonychus, still live with us today: birds.

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© 2025 by Neil G. Pezzoni. Powered and secured by Wix

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기억의 극장 Theatre of Memory: Vignettes from the Minds of Korean Women Artists

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기억의 극장 Theatre of Memory: Vignettes from the Minds of Korean Women Artists

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기억의 극장 Theatre of Memory is an art exhibition showcasing and highlighting the incredible and beautiful works of ten contemporary female artists of Korean-heritage from cities across the world. Though loosely connected by this Korean heritage, identity and culture are fluid in this space as these women create and converse across cities, countries and experiences, ruminating on and exploring a multitude of themes.

Vignettes are brief and evocative encounters and in this theatre of memory, each 'gallery' serves as a stage-like vignette showcasing each artists’ unique perspective and offering a brief yet vivid glimpse into their minds.

Through conversations with loved ones long gone, historical figures, traditions, mythologies, cultures, memories and bodies, these ten artists create work that is deeply personal yet speaks to the joys, anxieties, experiences and humanity of individuals from all walks of life. These distinct yet deeply connected vignettes encourage us to question what ‘Korean art’ can mean; to reflect on our relationships to self, to each other, to our pasts and presents; and to consider the ways our shared yet diverse cultures shape the way we understand and navigate our increasingly globalized world.

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Curated by Grace Vallecillo-Drews at the University of Washington, Seattle, Spring 2025. All images belong to their respective artist.

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L'Chaim: Clothing and Accesories of the Jewish Diaspora by Madeleine O'Connor

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L'Chaim: Clothing and Accesories of the Jewish Diaspora by Madeleine O'Connor

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Jewish people have been scattered around the globe. Even through pogroms(violent attacks aimed at exterminating Jews in Europe), genocide and war the people have found light in the darkest of times and survived. This exhibit will take you through the different shades of Jewish dress from around the globe. Since being exiled by the Roman Empire from Judea, the Jewish people have moved around searching for a home in many different countries. Each region possesses its own unique clothing and customs. The groups represented are:

Mizrahim(מִזְרָחִיםיְהוּדֵי)-Jews of Israel, the Middle East and Asia

Sephardim(סְפָרַדיְהוּדֵי)-Jews of the Iberian Peninsula and Northern Africa

Ashkenaz(אַשְׁכְּנַז יְהוּדֵי)-Jews of Eastern and Central Europe

Beta Israel(בֵּיתֶא יִשְׂרָאֵל, ቤተ እስራኤል)-Jews of Ethiopia

Bene Israel(בני ישראל,इस्रायलचे पुत्र)-Jews of India.

This is a celebration of life and of strength. The threads that connect the Jewish Diaspora are filled with love for one another and a light in the dark. To this may we say לחים, L’Chaim! To Life!

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We Have Always Existed: Queer Identities in the Ancient World by Syd Kirkpatrick

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We Have Always Existed: Queer Identities in the Ancient World by Syd Kirkpatrick

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In recent years queer identities have become more widely understood and accepted. Despite this, many still believe that these identities were fabricated by younger generations within the last 20 or so years. We challenge this belief, presenting evidence in the form of art from the Ancient World that depicts queer themes related to both gender and sexuality. Most of this art was made in antiquity; those that were made later in the 17th through the 19th centuries depict historical figures who lived in antiquity and figures from ancient Greco-Roman mythology. The focus is on individuals who, contemporarily, would be considered transgender, intersex, gay, and lesbian. The art you will see spans many years, from 3000 BCE to 1864, but they are all related to the Ancient World. The parts of the Ancient World represented in this art are the Mediterranean (specifically Greece and Italy), Egypt, Mesopotamian cultures like Sumerians and Babylonians, and the Levant (or modern-day Jerusalem).

This art tells a story, or more accurately, many stories. It tells us how homosexuality was accepted, even expected in certain circumstances, between men in Ancient Greece and Rome. It tells us stories about people who physically change from one sex to the other, typically with divine assistance. It tells the story of the child of Aphrodite and Hermes, who exists outside of any binary understanding of gender, who was a symbol of sex, love, and sensuality. It tells us a story about the never-ending love between two men and the desperate devotion that continued even after one of them died. It tells us a story about the desperation you experience when begging a god to make your body match the way you feel. This art tells stories, but it also tells the truth, and the truth is this: We Have Always Existed.

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Rogue Specimen: The History and Art of Taxidermy by Marnie Hill-Woodworth

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Rogue Specimen: The History and Art of Taxidermy by Marnie Hill-Woodworth

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Rogue Specimen: The History and Art of Taxidermy shares specimens spanning from 400 B.C. in Egypt into the present day showing the evolution and artform of taxidermy. Combining history, art, and science, taxidermy can represent shared knowledge from multiple traditions and walks of life. Most people may only think of taxidermy as an educational model or a trophy, but there is so much more to the art form beyond its original functions. Museums became places where people could see animals they had never seen before in a scientifically accurate diorama in the work of Carl Akeley, and researchers could study specimens without having to go into the field.

But when did things go Rogue? In the early 2000s, two Minneapolis-based artists, Scott Bibus and Sarina Brewer, realized the similarities in their work and coined the term "Rogue Taxidermy," which is "A genre of pop-surrealist art characterized by mixed media sculptures containing conventional taxidermy-related materials that are used in an unconventional manner". The works in this exhibition shine a light on taxidermy's ability to preserve life after death, as well as the creativity of the artists and the messages that come with their work. While viewing the pieces on display, even though some of them may be unnatural or uncanny, remember that death is a natural process and art is often made as a response by those who survive, connecting our human and lived experiences.

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ROGUE SPECIMEN: THE HISTORY AND ART OF TAXIDERMY