Who knew that in the town infamous for its Witch Hunts of the late 17th century was also a place with a long history? I did, but Peter didn't, so it was time to bring him to this place of curios.
A Museum of Art and Culture
The roots of the Peabody Essex Museum date to the 1799 founding of the East India Marine Society, an organization of Salem captains and supercargoes who had sailed beyond either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. The society’s charter included a provision for the establishment of a “cabinet of natural and artificial curiosities,” which is what we today would call a museum. Society members brought to Salem a diverse collection of objects from the northwest coast of America, Asia, Africa, Oceania, India and elsewhere. By 1825, the society moved into its own building, East India Marine Hall, which today contains the original display cases and some of the very first objects collected.
I learned of the place because it was renovated in 2003 by Moshe Safdie: World-renowned architect, urban planner. Of course I rushed over to check it out, my curiousity for modern architecture in tow. The building was not very impressive to me, but the reconstructed Chinese Yin Yu Tang home was a very cool thing to visit, especially since we had recently been to China.
Well on this night, with extended museum hours, we arrived at 9p.m. to see the "sneak peak" of an upcoming exhibit. This was not the first "peek," as Theo Jansen and his Strandbeest have been in the area for a while now and there were a few public events:
We really wanted to see the Crane's beach event, but alas...so much to do, so little time.
There is a plethora of video on these most oddly compelling creature/sculpture/art thingies, along with advance press that describes Theo's beests:
"PEM presents the first major American exhibition of Theo Jansen's famed kinetic sculptures. Dynamic and interdisciplinary, Jansen's Strandbeests ("beach animals") blur the lines between art and science, sculpture and performance. The exhibition celebrates the thrill of the Strandbeests' unique locomotion as well as the processes that have driven their evolutionary development on the Dutch seacoast. The kinetic sculptures are accompanied by artist sketches, facilitated demonstrations of the creatures' complex ambulatory systems, a hall of "fossils" as well as photography by Lena Herzog."
I could tell Puggles Pete was impresssed at this spectical of art. It was so right up his ally, and the artist was in the house and totally accessible, which was very cool.
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| Theo Jansen, the Dutch artist and creator of the Strandbeest. |
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| Mr. Jansen used to be a physics dude prior to his art career. How do I know? Because I asked him of course! |
We missed the talk that was a part of "Release the Beest" night, so we weren't quite sure who Lena Herzog was. We thought this may be her:
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| "Hey lady, where did you get your neat-o keen Strandbeest hat?"
You see, Lena was high on my list to check out and a strange blending of both of hubby and I's interests. Lena is the wife of famed documentarian Werner Herzog.
She also is the photographer who collaborated with Theo and now they have a 20 lb. tome that the Museum is calling their exhibit catalog (of course Peter bought and carried it, that's what we do. We are collecting coffee table books of our journeys for our dotage when we can barely read and/or see):
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So in answer to our curiosity on the Strandbeest hat lady (which we thought totally plausible as Werner's wife judging age and uniqueness of attire), we were so wrong. Of course if you are Werner Herzog, then your 3rd wife can indeed be a trophy wife who is almost 30 years your junior. And if Mr. Herzog is 73, you can do the math and see that we were wrong), she'll just have to remain the mystery lady.
Peter likes PVC piping and you can sense it in his nerve-ending, almost visible glee at being here in this space with this exhibit, these creatures, and the man (whose work of course reminded me of Calder's).
My interest in PVC piping is tied to my career as a teacher. I brightened when I recognized the DIY whisper phones pieces that Peter and I purchased for one of my classrooms (so students can read to themselves and hear what they sound like).
We also were lucky to arrive just as Theo was finishing up demonstrating a beest walking:
Pretty bizarre right?
Of course I thought since I made whisper phones, I could do this. I was so wrong.
These creatures, this work, is a little more advanced than my work (understatement here in case folks didn't get it). P.S. Maybe that's Lena on the floor. Another mystery lady photobombing my shot!
This one is my favorite.
The museum has a dead beest hanging in the entryway.
Finally, I so enjoyed seeing my hubby go from the sophisticated "college-level" geek at Harvard an hour prior to this, his boyish awe and wonder at the beauty of science:
Oh yes he did! He walked a beast and it wasn't our 110 lb. St. Bernard mutt. Here he is:
Another adventure to add to the annuals of my brain, record here for posterity, and return to in the dead of winter some day to rekindle that wanderlust spirit that imbues my soul.
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