Cabinet of Curiosities
As you might know, the title of The Cabinet of Wonders refers to real-life Renaissance collections stored in a fancy cabinet—or, if the collection was too big, in a room or many rooms. The collections were a combination of the bizarre, beautiful, scientific, and believed-to-be magical. The German word for these collections is wunderkammer (and I wonder if this will be the title of my novel when it comes out in Germany…). It has also been called a “cabinet of curiosities,” and this is from where we get the term “curio cabinet.”
The Museum of Modern Art is having an exhibition about cabinets of wonder, and will include work by such artists as Louise Bourgeois and Damien Hirst (he of the I Am Going to Make a Diamond Skull and Sell It for $100 Million Dollars fame). Check out the MoMA exhibition here. Check out Hirst’s skull below. Thanks, Meredith, for bringing my attention to the exhibition!
(Damien Hirst, 2007)
Did you hear about the Hirst prank? Someone (a genius!) covered a skull in rhinestones & then threw it away in the garbage outside the museum where the skull was being shown. Awesome.
That IS a good prank! In fact, it could even be considered an art installation of its own…
Hi,
I meant to send this earlier and say Happy Release Day and I actually ran out of time. However, I did get to the bookstore to pick up my copy and started reading it. Love it so far! (I’m probably a little partial!)
Jenny
Hi Jenny,
Thanks for your email, and I’m glad you like the book so far (partial though you may be)!
I like Hirst’s memento mori, but I think Joel Arthur Rosenthal would’ve done a better job with the pave diamonds.
I nominated you for a brilliante award!
Thanks, Pamphilia! But, um…what’s a brillante award?