Vitrinen in Arbeit

Michael Dawson Gallery, Los Angeles, 2005. Fine. Limited edition: 1 of 25 copies numbered and signed by the photographer in the colophon 8 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches, unnumbered pages, cloth with cloth slipcase, An artist book project containing one hundred and thirty images from the photographers extended visual investigation of the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria. The book was designed and printed digitally by Kaucyila Brooke using archival inks. In her introduction the photographer notes that, "The Natural History Museum in Vienna was inaugurated in 1889. Its palatial architecture, its systematic arrangements of natural objects, and its furnishings have remained virtually unchanged. It was not until the mid 1990s that electric light was added to the exhibition halls; until then the museum would often close as early as two o'clock in the afternoon during the winter months because it was no longer possible to see. However, contemporary circumstances and trends toward privatization in formerly state funded institutions have affected the museum which now depends heavily on visitor entrance fees for its annual budget. The exhibitions are changing to become more visitor-friendly and to conform to current education standards in museum display. In 2002, I visited the museum while researching and collecting material for my photomontage novella-roman-cartoon, 'Tit for Twat' and encountered a partially disassembled room that had been the Shark exhibit. A sign indicated that the room was being remodeled and elegant braided ropes hanging from stanchions prevented visitors from entering the working area. I began photographing this process of change in the museum and have continued over the last three years to track the progress of the full, empty, and transformed interior space of the building. The resulting project shows the fullness of the collection, the traces of previous vitrines, the empty containment of changing ideas about display. It highlights the architecture and ideology of the family and colonialist era of discovery, the contrast of historic and contemporary wall decor and the emergence of the didactic exhibition. This visual index to a previous history of exhibition surfaces in the marked floors, empty vitrines, and stained display boards in Vienna's Natural History Museum."