Fort Mason Center
99 Marina Blvd
415.721.4770
This event has passed.
Special Event
Wondrous Strange: A Twenty-first Century Cabinet of Curiosities
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Courtesy Michele Muennig
- When
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Opens Thursday July 22, 2010 (5:30–7:30pm)
July 22, 2010 – Aug 28, 2010
Daily (schedule)
- Where
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- Price
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$18
“Wunderkammern, German for wonder rooms, were totally hot during the Renaissance. These collections of bizarre objects and early scientific specimens were the precursor of the modern museum. London's British Museum started as humble assortments of curiosities. Even Peter the Great had one. His was full of extracted teeth from his side hobby, amateur dentistry. Tonight, weird is in vogue again at the SFMOMA. Artists from the SF Steampunk, Burning Man, and DIY communities have been commissioned to create contemporary wonder rooms. At tonight's opening, expect Tim Burton-esque drawings, the Long Now Foundation's clock designed to tell time 10,000 years into the future, and an art car in the shape of a snail.”
Allison P Davis, Flavorpill
SFMOMA says:
The 16th century's cabinets of curiosities, precursors to today's museums, were encyclopedic collections of specimens from the natural world, as well as man-made artifacts. These cabinets served as educational resources for artists and natural philosophers of the early modern period in western Europe. Featuring works by more than a dozen Bay Area artists and including photography, sculpture, and painting, the exhibition explores themes such as evolutionary biology and history, progress and decadence, and the carnal and the intellectual.
