I have gotten a sneak peek of the new exhibition "Object Migration" at Proteus Gowanus, which officially opens with a reception tomorrow night at 7 PM. From what I have seen thus far, this is a pretty exciting exhibition, a real ode to material culture with lots of intrigue and surprises. Hope to see you at the opening, for which full details follow:

Proteus Gowanus
Thursday, January 12
7pm
543 Union Street Brooklyn

Join us for wine and conversation at the opening of the Object Migration exhibition. This show is a transitory museum of terrestrial transitions with over 50 objects and their migratory stories brought to us by you, our friends and collaborators. Some objects speak of intensely intimate moments while others tell geologic tales of perfect indifference.

When we think about migration (as we have been doing all year), we tend to focus on people and creatures, the mobile inhabitants of the planet. But life and motion create products and byproducts: tools, waste, the implements of culture. These are often the things that drive us onward in our migrations. Their stories are ineluctably connected with our own. At the points where our stories intersect with objects, much is revealed, not only about our personal trajectories but also about our precarious relationship with the environment.

We sent out the following message: “Do you have an object whose story you would like to share? An heirloom, an artwork, a toothbrush, a stone? An object which has inspired you, dominated you, educated you, exalted or degraded you? For our second exhibition of the Migration year, we invite you to lend us your object and include with it everything you know about it. We are especially interested in the part of the story that is the object’s alone: it’s history as material, as an economic entity, as waste, or as the impetus for other migratory tales.”

This query brought us over 50 objects which are the jumping off point for a three-month exploration of Object Migrations.

The objects on display range from a 50 million year old “dinosaur fart” (or gas bubble) to a collection of wild bird’s stomach contents collected in the early 20th C for “scientific” purposes. There are also talismans, mundane objects with secret meanings, things of beauty and much more.

We will view them as independent beings with stories of their own, stories that began before the object’s encounter with its current owner and that will likely continue long after they part. The stories may migrate into the economic, the industrial, the political, the historical, the geologic, the environmental and so on as visitors add to the stories on display with information they may have about the object in question.

More can be found here.

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