David Arguello submitted his sweet tattoo exposing his deltoid.  Love the texture of the muscle, makes you want to touch it.  Tattoo done by Yomico Moreno in Caracas, Venezuela.

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

It has just come to my attention that Bloomsbury Auction House in London, England will be auctioning off a pretty epic collection of 729 lots related to "conjuring and circus"--a few of my favorites above--this Thursday September 8th.

You can find out more--and learn how to bid!--on the Bloomsbury Auction website by clicking here. Thanks so much to Morbid Anatomy reader Janine Veazue for sending this along!

All images sourced from the auction website; details about each can be found here.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

I’m a big fan of zines and have a secret wish to create a Street Anatomy zine someday.  In the meantime you can check out this recent release from SOILED, a zine showcasing the “interstices of architecture, urbanism, and the pedosphere.”  They publish twice a year on each solstice and their latest issue, Skinscrapers, focuses on the human body!

Skinscrapers probes how our bodies interact with the spaces around them and how the spaces we inhabit can become extensions of our bodies. By focusing on the surface of the skin as a natural mediator, Skinscrapers navigates a continuum of scale, starting inside the gut, proceeding to the contours of the body, and culminating in the anthropomorphic city.

Download a copy of Skinscrapers for free!

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

This video made my day!  As someone who’s a bit over the whole Bodyworlds phenomenon, The Art of Bleeding, a Los Angeles-based multi-media performance troupe specializing in “medical education”, has created this over-the-top mash up of Bodyworld creator, Gunther von Hagen, and the beloved ice cream brand, Haagen Daz.

Body Worlds’ master plastinator has wandered into the frozen desert world. You scream, I scream. We all scream, and scream… and scream….

Cadaver Crunch and Blackberry Necrosis—fantastic.

Make sure to view all of The Art of Bleedings videos at artofbleeding.com.

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

We previously posted the incredible anatomical tattoos of Professor Richard Sawdon Smith and also featured them in the Street Anatomy gallery show last year.  Now he brings us the process of being tattooed alongside the process of drawing blood. I bet the nurses absolutely love him.

Sawdown Smith explains:

The tattoo process replicates the actions of the nurse by puncturing skin via a needle, drawing blood as part of the process.

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

A few days ago, I paid a visit to The Kokdu Museum, a small and charming museum here in Seoul devoted to the Korean tradition of kokdu, or painted wooden figures created to accompany the deceased on their treacherous journey through the afterlife. These figures would be placed--by the dozen, as it appears--on the ornate traditional funeral biers which carried the dead to their final resting place. From what I understand, all of the pieces on view in the museum were created in the late Joseon Dynasty, which dominated Korea from 1392 – 1897.

The kokdu figurines, as the museum text explains, are other-worldy creatures intended to assist the deceased in their transition through the afterlife. Some are guides, some protectors, some entertainers. They help to "soothe and calm our bewildered emotions while traveling the path of bereavement..." so long as the deceased "still remains in the area of between the 'already' and the 'yet.'"

Dragon and goblin heads are placed on the front and the back of the bier. The are intended to frighten evil spirits and signify the circularity of life and death.

The museum also had a wonderful miniature diorama depicting a funeral procession.

And a terrific (though small) temporary exhibition entitled "Afterlife, The Journey to the Other World." As the wall text explained:

The exhibition "Afterlife, The Journey to the Other World," was derived from traditional Korean belief, called Siwangsasang, which described that the deceased must go through ten after-death trials about his/her previous life.

Among those ten were seven commonly known trials, and people counted those days accordingly and had a memorial ritual on the 49th days of death.

Joseon dynasty was a strictly Confucianist era which greatly valued filial duites. Other religions such as Buddhism, Taoism and Shamanism were able to retain their power because Joseon people saw a great deal of filial duties in ancestral rites.

By studying Joseon dynasty (1392-1910)'s religious movement, we've learned that all these different religions and cultures melted in together and brought our culture a cultural synergy, which is known as the Medici Effect.

It is very interesting to learn how all these different religions and cultures combined and developed a new cultural nuance on the subject, the other world.

As mentioned earlier, this exhibition is based on these cultural influences regarding the other world and the afterlife. This exhibition was also greatly influenced by "With God," a web cartoon that depicts this other world as an interesting and realistic place.

With "With God" and KOKDU MUSEUM's old antiquities, this exhibition also introduced augmented reality technique and media art so that visitors can experience a mixture of art and science throughout the show.

This exhibit allowed visitors to travel through the afterlife, meeting each King of Hell and discovering both what traits he would judge you on and what were the possible punishments. Each stop on the journey was illustrated by traditional artworks depicting these Kings and their punishments as well as images from the "With God" web comic.

You can find out more about the The Kokdu Museum, by clicking here. Thanks very much to Professor Choi Tae Man of Kookmin University for recommending this museum to me!

For those interested in finding out more, I purchased a book from the museum--in English!--which will be available for viewing at The Morbid Anatomy Library when it reopens in early October.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

<p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p>

This is truly an embarrassment of riches. A second film record of Walter Potter's museum of curious taxidermy (see first one here), from the British Pathé website, this one from 1955. Click on the image to view the film!

Caption reads:

Bramber, Sussex.

M/S Walter Collins, grandson of original owner Walter Potter, arranging kittens which are all dressed in wedding clothes. A cat's wedding tableau. C/U Walter Collins with a cup from the kitten's tea party. He gives it a clean and then gives the whole tableaux a clean with a brush. (The narration says that he gives the collection two cleans a year to keep them in good condition)

C/U Walter cleaning the rats from "The Rat's Gambling Den Raid". C/U shots stuffed rats playing cards and dominoes. C/U shots of rabbits' village school. All the rabbits are in different poses at their desks with pens or books and some have different expressions on their faces.

Note: Potter's Museum is a bizarre collection from the Victorian period of mainly stuffed animals.

Thanks so much, Live in Your Head, for sending this one my way! Let this bring cheers to my compatriots on the East Coast who are weathering a hurricane right now!

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Rotterdam-based artist, Olaf Mooij, known for his modifications of vehicles for the sake of art, created this brain car mash-up.  The brain captures video during the day and then remixes and projects the video on the inside of the brain at night, creating a somewhat psychedelic reflection of our own dreaming brains.

I love how the cerebellum becomes the trunk of the car.  Fantastic.

Does anyone know what type of car that is?

[spotted by SARO via Juxtapoz]

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

Killed Art Segment from David Schenk on Vimeo.

Street Artist KilleD, a frequent contributor to our Anatomical Street Art group on Flickr, is featured in interview video directed by David Schenk.  I want his bandana.

Check out more of KilleD’s work on his Flickr stream.

[Spotted by Ryan Gerdes]

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

I have some exciting news! The details for the premiere of Through the Weeping Glass--the Quay Brothers' new documentary based on the collections of books, instruments, and medical anomalies at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the Mütter Museum--have just been announced!

The film will launch with three epic premieres--one in Philadelphia at the Mütter Museum, one in New York at MoMA, and one in Los Angeles hosted by The Museum of Jurassic Technology. Each city's event will feature a moderated talk with the Quays, while the Mütter Philadelphia opening will also--excitingly!--be accompanied by an exhibition at the museum on the making of the film guest curated by MoMA's Barbara London.

Full details from the press release follow; tickets are, I am warned, selling fast, so act quickly if you want to attend! Hope to see you there.

Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum)

New Quay Brothers short film to premiere September 2011 in Philadelphia, New York, and Los Angeles

“To call the Quays’ work the most original and rapturously vivid image-making on the planet might sound like hyperbole until you see the films. . . .” —Michael Atkinson, Village Voice

Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum) is a documentary on the collections of books, instruments, and medical anomalies at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the Mütter Museum. This short film (running time: 31 minutes) is the first made by the internationally recognized Quay Brothers in the United States.

As Malcolm Jones (Newsweek) has commented, “the Mütter Museum teaches you indelibly how strange life can be, how unpredictable and various [and] will revise and enlarge your idea of what it is to be human.” The coupling of the Quay Brothers’ vision with the collections of the College’s Historical Medical Library and Museum has produced a riveting experience of contemplative set pieces exploring the College and Mütter Museum. Adding to the film’s visual strength is a powerful musical score by composer Timothy Nelson and a resonant voice-over by Derek Jacobi.

The film premieres in three locations in September 2011, with a moderated conversation with the artists:

• September 22, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 6:30 PM (more here)
• September 24, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 8:00 PM (more here)
• September 27, Cary Grant Theater, SONY Pictures Studios, hosted by The Museum of Jurassic Technology, Los Angeles, 8:00 PM (more here)

An exhibition guest curated by Barbara London, Associate Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art, The Museum of Modern Art, on the making of the film opens in September 2011 in the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

Subsequent to the premiere screenings, the film will be available for purchase on DVD with an accompanying booklet.

ABOUT THE QUAY BROTHERS

Two of the world’s most original filmmakers, the Quay Brothers are identical twins who were born outside Philadelphia in 1947. The Quays studied illustration in Philadelphia before going on to the Royal College of Art in London, where they began making animated shorts in the 1970s. They have lived in London ever since.

They are best known for their classic 1986 film Street of Crocodiles, which filmmaker Terry Gilliam selected as one of the ten best animated films of all time. In 1994 they made their first foray into live-action feature-length filmmaking with Institute Benjamenta. The Quays’ work also includes set design for theatre and opera, including their 1998 Tony-nominated set designs for Ionesco’s The Chairs on Broadway. The Quays have also directed pop promos for His Name Is Alive, Michael Penn, Sparklehorse, 16 Horsepower, and Peter Gabriel (contributing to his celebrated “Sledgehammer” video), and have also directed ground-breaking commercials for, Honeywell Computers, ICI Wood, K. P. Skips, Nikon, BBC, Coca-Cola, Northern Rock, Dorritos, Roundup, Kellogs, Badoit water, Galaxy, MTV, Nikon, Murphy’s beer and Slurpee, amongst others.

In 2000 they made In Absentia, an award-winning collaboration with Karlheinz Stockhausen, as well as two dance films, Duet and The Sandman. In 2002 they contributed an animated dream sequence to Julie Taymor’s film Frida. The following year the Quays made four short films in collaboration with composer Steve Martland for a live event at the Tate Modern in London and in 2005 premiered their second feature film, The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes, at the Locarno Film Festival.

In addition to Through the Weeping Glass, the Quay Brothers’ other commissioned films over the past twenty years include Anamorphosis (1991), The Phantom Museum (2003), and Inventorium of Traces (2009).

ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF PHILADELPHIA AND THE MÜTTER MUSEUM

The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the oldest professional medical organization in the country, was founded in 1787 when twenty-four physicians gathered “to advance the science of medicine and to thereby lessen human misery.” Today more than 1,400 Fellows (elected members) continue to convene at the College and work towards better serving the public.

Throughout its two-hundred-year history, the College has provided a place for both medical professionals and the general public to learn about medicine as both a science and as an art. The College is home to the Historical Medical Library and the Mütter Museum, America’s finest museum of medical history, which displays its beautifully preserved collections of anatomical specimens, models, and medical instruments in a nineteenth-century setting. The museum helps the public understand the mysteries and beauty of the human body and to appreciate the history of diagnosis and treatment of disease.

With an attendance exceeding 105,000 today, the Museum has become internationally well known, has been featured in a documentary on the Discovery Channel, and is the subject of two best-selling books.

This project has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.

You can find out more about the opening in Philadelphia by clicking here, New York by clicking here, and Los Angeles by clicking here. You can find out more about the film itself and the accompanying exhibition guest curated by MOMA's Barbara London by by clicking here.

All images above are frame grabs from the film.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Hi all. My sincere apologies for falling behind on Morbid Anatomy. I am currently living in Seoul, Korea as part of the very generous Apex Art Outbound Residency Program (thanks, Josh Foer!), and one of the obligations of the residency is to blog about my experiences. Sadly, this had taken my focus off Morbid Anatomy a bit.

I promise to do my best over this next month in Korea to get some Morbid Anatomy reportage done; in the meantime, if you are curious about what I am finding in Seoul, you can check out my Apex Art blog here.

Thanks for your patience, and I will be back in full force in mid-September!

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Freshly released from the amazing toy designer, Emilio Garcia:

LapoLab and Black Square Gallery present the first Bronze editions of EMILIO GARCIA XL Jumping Brain.

Fall 2011, Emilio Garcia will be presenting a Polished Bronze and a Black and Bronze version of its celebrated Jumping Brain, each will be a limited edition of 10 and is expected to cost $6,000 or 4,000€.

This XL piece weighs over 17Lbs and measures 8.5 x 17 x 13.3 inches and will be presented in a nice wooden box with. Black Square Gallery will be taking pre-orders for 5 of the 10 editions of each version. The rest will be exhibit at art fairs and art galleries in the US and Europe, and made available for collectors and visitors of this events.

If you are interested in pre-ordering any of it, please email ron@blacksquaregallery.com or contact@emiliogarcia.org

A 17 pound brain!  Mighty impressive.

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

We’ve posted the work of the wonderful Pierluigi Fracassi before, and here is his latest work entitled, Daphne: Admirable Choice.  It’s a gorgeous design, delicately laid.

View all of Peirluigi’s fabulous work on his site, pierluigifracassi.com.

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

Oh my god.  Apart from my usual lust for being back in London, I especially wish I could have been there to see this show by Australian artist, Helen Pynor, at the GV Art gallery. Never before have I seen quite an explicit use of human viscera in such a way as to evoke beauty and discomfort simultaneously.  Representing death, fragility, and the apathy of medical science (hello left-over organs from anatomy lab), Helen’s photographs are a true bridge between anatomy and art. Equally as interesting is the inspiration behind the photographs [from GV Art]:

The unlikely starting point for this body of work was research Pynor undertook into incidents of accidental drowning in the Thames, inspired by her first year in London in 2009-2010 which was spent working by the river. Beguiled by the river’s shifting tides and lethal currents, she researched some of the thousands of recorded cases of accidental drowning in the river, from incidents involving hundreds of victims drowned in mass disasters through to those in which a lone victim met their end.

Viewing the rest of Helen’s anatomically inspired work is a must at helenpynor.com.

[Spotted by Kimberly via io9]

We’ve all been bombarded by skull shirts lately, but this one designed by Corky blends anatomy and design exquisitely.

Super soft tee hand printed in Melbourne. For those of you who like to touch, another nice detail is that some of the triangles are bleached into the teeshirt while others are printed in plastisol, the variation providing a texturally interesting experience.

I want to touch it or touch someone wearing it.

Available for $49 at Corky. I only wish they had these in lady sizes!

Just got word of an interesting looking event/exhibition taking place this weekend in the ever fascinating Detroit. Full details follow:

In the Evening of the 12th and 13th Day of August 2011, it will be unveiled an extraordinary exposition of biological and medical exploration entitled Corpus Illuminata - An Anatomic Interpretation. Hosted within the District VII Gallery in Detroit, this unique event will consist of one part exhibition of anatomic-inspired artwork, one part museum of medical antiquities and one part academia of accredited presentations.

The exhibition portion will feature 33 artistic explorations from 24 artists local and across the nation. Within the museum portion, collectors of Victorian-era medical instruments, quackery and oddities will bring together their cherished pieces to re-create themed display rooms ranging from surgical to mortuary. On stage, various speakers will present and discuss a variety of topics that include human anatomy, psychology, the history of contraception, the chemistry of herbal supplements and other intriguing subject matters.

Video installations within the venue will be feature films and videos ranging from historical medical experimentations, human autopsies, artistic interpretations and more. The ambiance is supplied by Life Toward Twilight from the new CD "I Swear By All The Flowers", which explores memories from the end of the Nineteenth Century through a sound collage from antique sources, including music boxes, ticking grandfather clocks, steam trains, wax cylinder recordings, early mechanical factories and old voices. Also, gelatos, gelato floats and flavored teas, courtesy of the Detroit Tea Company, will be served within our apothecary-themed health bar.

The doors open at 6pm on both evenings until midnight and all ages are welcome, however discretion must be advised due to some graphic medical content.

Admission is only five dollars.

You can find out more about this event here.

What could be better than gold and leather with a hint of skulls? This Alexander McQueen cuff bracelet comes in at a cool $510. It’s one of my favorites in their collection of skull adorned accessories. Classy, yet very unique.

Beautifully rendered heart vase by Veneri Design.

Flower Pump is inspired by the muscle of love,
…every artery leads straight to the heart…

The Flower Pump comes in a variety of glosses and is available for purchase at Shapeways.

[Spotted by April via Design Milk]

The You Are Here letterpress prints are back once again by popular demand at the Street Anatomy store!

Display your love for that special someone by showing them exactly where they’re located in your big anatomical heart.

• 12” x 18” hand printed letterpress poster
• Five color hand carved lino cut
• Hand set vintage metal type
• Printed one color at a time in charcoal gray, pale yellow, red, blue and black
• French 80# cover, true white
• Created and hand printed by the fine folks at Roll and Tumble Press in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Available at the Street Anatomy store for $25. 50 available. Free skull sticker packs with every order.

Film maker, friend, and many-time Observatory lecturer Ronni Thomas finds Observatory--the event and gallery space I founded with some friends in Brooklyn New York a few years back--inspiring. So inspiring, in fact, that he has created a new web-based video series entitled "The Midnight Archive: Tales from the Observatory" which will use as a launching off point the events, classes, field trips and personalities to be found in this space.

This Friday night we will be hosting a launch party for The Midnight Archive at The Coney Island Museum as part of my ongoing exhibition The Great Coney Island Spectacularium; more on that party can be found here.

In the meantime, above is a teaser for the show, which features five Observatory presenters--including our self-taught anthropomorphic taxidermy and mummification instructors--and is graced by the music of Stephen Coates of The Real Tuesday Weld. And following is what auteur Ronni Thomas has to say about this new series and its inspiration:

About an ODD year ago, or so, i had the honor to lecture at the ever impressive Brooklyn Observatory in, well... Brooklyn, NY. I was amazed at the turnout - I could not believe so many people were interested in such strange topics. Talking to Joanna Ebenstein of Morbid Anatomy and the Observatory itself, it seemed apparent that there was a demand for a series on the exotic and the esoteric.

Hence - The Midnight Archive... Its not only a web series but a collection - so to speak - of some of the unique people, collections, careers and artifacts from the Observatory as well as around the world. Consider it a sampler, an Observatory Sampler - like those Whitman's Chocolate Samplers (only don't crush each of these to figure out whats inside). The Series launches Friday August 12th at Coney Island USA - for details please email ronni [at] themidnightarchive.com

Title Theme by the ever amazing Stephen Coates (The Real Tuesday Weld, Lazarus and the Plane Crash) http://www.tuesdayweld.com.

Stay tuned for full episodes at themidnightarchive.com. For more on Friday's launch party--where at least one entire episode will be screened--click here. For more on Observatory--the space that inspired it all!--click here.