Community: bloggers@brooklynmuseum

Thursday afternoon, around noon, I was doing an advance press interview with Modern Painter magazine about the exhibition Who Shot Rock & Roll, which opens here at the Brooklyn Museum in October. One of the questions the writer asked me was, “What challenges do you face in designing an exhibition of rock and roll photographs for an art museum?” My immediate responses were: “Since it’s the first major exhibition about rock and roll photographs in America, we are including an encyclopedic 175 works and the challenge will be how I can install so many works, and still give each one its own space.” . . . as well as, “It’s not often that I’m installing images such as Johnny Cash giving the finger, and an equally provocative image of Courtney Love, and how do you present these works, which overtly say rock and roll, but might offensive to some museum patrons?”

Michael Jackson, 1999. (printed 2000). Photograph by Albert Watson.

Well today, it’s a different world in Rock and Roll.  Michael Jackson died.  We have a huge 8′ x 6′ portrait of Michael Jackson in the show, by the world renown photographer Albert Watson. Before, my mind was on “Where should we put the 8 photographs of Elvis from 1956?” . . . and “Where can we fit the 6 panel lenticular photograph of Jimi Hendricks?” Today. . . my thought is, “In what special place can we put our great American artist Michael Jackson?”

In the last several days, I’ve had dozens of conversations about Michael and his music and dancing. It seems everyone has a story of where they were and what happened when they were listening to his songs. A similar thing happened late in 2007, when Michael Jackson came to the Brooklyn Museum for an Ebony magazine photo shoot to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Thriller. I’ve never seen such giddy, smiley people before . . . all wondering if they were going to catch a glimpse of Michael . . . and all saying how much they just LOVED THRILLER!

What’s your story?

Last Thursday we welcomed over 900 members to the opening of Yinka Shonibare MBE. The weather was perfect, the galleries were packed, and the glass Pavilion was pretty in pink, with festive tablecloths to complement the hot pink walls of the exhibition.

Video via Urban Art & Antiques blog.

Speaking of festive, members received a special surprise when the artist showed up. While having an artist attend the exhibition opening is always a treat in and of itself, Shonibare made an entrance that we wouldn’t forget:  he walked in arm in arm with two companions who were impeccably dressed in full Victorian costume−it was as if they had just emerged from one of Shonibare’s photographs right into the museum!

Photo courtesy Trish Mayo via Flickr.

After walking through the exhibition with these lovely attendants by his side, Shonibare spoke with his good friend and author, Dr. Anthony Downey of the Sotheby’s Institute in London. This was truly the main event, as 450 members packed in to the auditorium to have this special chance to hear the artist speak about his work in conversation with a leading expert on contemporary art. Their engaging conversation centered on the “authenticity” of Shonibare’s work as an “African” artist working in the UK. A tutor of his initially recommended he focus on his African heritage instead of other themes he was exploring at the time. He went to Brixton market where African print fabrics are sold and found out that Dutch wax fabric as it is called, is actually produced in Europe and imitates Indonesian Batik patterns. Initially made to sell in Indonesia, they ended up being sold in West Africa because Indonesians preferred their own fabrics. At the time Yinka realized this would be the central theme that would run in his works: the idea of authentic versus inauthentic.

Photo courtesy Trish Mayo via Flickr.

Following questions from the audience, Shonibare graciously signed exhibition catalogues for members on stage until he’d gotten through the very last person in line. Members flocked to the galleries afterwards, particularly to the museum’s Period Rooms, where Shonibare’s works are whimsically integrated into these 18^th and 19^th century settings.

As this exhibition is the first major U.S. survey of Shonibare’s work, the opening last night was meaningful for everyone involved, and we thank everyone who came out for this special evening. Yinka Shonibare MBE is now open to the public and will be on view until September 20.

Judging by the number of re-tweets Nick’s “Poor SpumoniNick’s Almanack” project received, I think it’s safe to say that 1stfans enjoy Twitter Art Feed projects that mix language and wit with a little interactivity. This month, we ramp up the interactivity to create the first ever work of art by 1stfans themselves. Ranjit Bhatnagar, whose personal website has been around since 1993 (!!), submitted a proposal for the Twitter Art Feed that demonstrated his great understanding of how twitter works and what creative possibilities lie within the daily interactions on this platform.

Screenshot of the original “Exquisite Sonnet” project in 1992, a collaboratively-produced sonnet.

Ranjit’s proposition is actually an updated version of a project he did a long time ago (at least in internet years), and Shelley and I are convinced it’s going to work really well with the 1stfans crowd we have on twitter right now. Here’s Ranjit’s proposal:

Long ago in the dark ages of the internet I conducted a version of the surrealists’ language games. In the “Exquisite Sonnet Project” (1992) I had participants write a sonnet, one line each; each person only knowing the preceding line and the rhyme they had to match. I edited the entries slightly for meter and posted the results of each sonnet as it was completed I’ll do a similar project for the 1stfans feed, constructing a group sonnet over the course of the month. 1stfans members can submit candidate lines for the sonnet by posting to @1stfans, and every two days I’ll choose a line and re-tweet it.  Submissions which follow the meter and rhyme constraints of the sonnet form will have the best chance of being chosen, and I might edit them slightly to fit.  People who want to talk about the project should use the hashtag #exquisitesonnet. I’ll also make a web application which creates random sonnets from all the submissions that at least come close to fitting the sonnet rules (launching mid-July).

In the 1992 “Exquisite Sonnet” project, the entire process was done over email. This time around, the sonnet will be composed entirely via Twitter. 

If the concepts don’t seem straightforward, they will soon after the tweeting begins. You’ll get the hang of it, and Ranjit (@ranjit) and I (@willcary) will be able to help out with any questions that may arise throughout the month. What’s exciting is that at the end of the month, we’ll end up with a 1stfans-produced sonnet that everyone can enjoy. If you want to be part of this project and are not a 1stfan Member, you can join here.

We’ve got something very cool going on!  Follow us on Twitter today to get our updates—we are going to be tweeting live as curators and conservators take four mummies in the Museum’s collection to the North Shore University Hospital for CT scanning.

Update: we are using hashtag #mummyCT:

Our Tweets and with everyone!

Full photoset is up on Flickr.

We were first notified of this surprise appearance from a comment in our online collection by Marlene F. Emmett, who spotted a statue that sure looks like our “Bird Lady” in the first episode of the second season of the HBO series True Blood. When I heard about it from Shelley via e-mail, I began to search the web and found an art history shout-out to us at this blog.

Great eye, ladies, and thanks for letting us know about it! Shelley meanwhile got some screenshots to me so I could study them:

Sam Trammell with “Bird Lady” in the second season premiere of the HBO series True Blood.

Of course, this is not our actual “Bird Lady,” but the prop in the pictures is clearly based on our most complete examples, like the one on our website. I know this because we included two fragmentary “Bird Lady figurines” in our recently closed exhibition, The Fertile Goddess and I did a lot of research on Predynastic female figurines from Egypt in order to write the labels.

Close-up of “Bird Lady” from True Blood.

Like the figure used in True Blood, the Brooklyn Museum figurines have white paint on their lower halves, representing a skirt, and their legs are not indicated. They were all excavated from graves at one site in Egypt in the early twentieth century. Other Predynastic figurines with raised arms and beak-like faces exist but they don’t have the skirt and their legs are indicated.  For an example of this type see this figure at the British Museum.

I would love to know how True Blood got the idea for this prop! Did someone from the show come to Brooklyn and see ours? Did they see it online or in a book? It is certainly an iconic and much reproduced image but not necessarily one I’d expect to turn up in a television show.

I am also very curious about where they found the replica that is used in the show. I did find a few websites that sell replicas based on our “Bird Lady” (here, here and here) and even a photo of one of these replicas on Flickr. However, these have very different bases from the one on True Blood. Maybe they had a different base made or even commissioned an artist to make a replica. I’d be grateful to hear from anyone who might know the answers to these questions.