March | April 2007 - Boston Photography Focus

Picture ShowWheeler received a MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and a BA from the University ofVermont, Burlington. A Collision Collective member, she received a LEF Foundation ContemporaryWork Fund Grant (2006), a Massachusetts Cultural Council Individual Artist Grant(2003), and an Artist Resource Trust Individual Artist Grant (2002). Her exhibitions includeThe Ludicrum Machines at the John Michael Kohler Gallery, Sheboygan, WI; Mass Mediaat Axiom Gallery, Jamaica Plan, MA; and The Ballad of Hands and Wires at the New ArtCenter, Newton, MA. Wheeler is a Lecturer in Fine Arts 3D at MassArt and on the graduatefaculty at the Art Institute of Boston.Hans Spinnermenon loan from le Musée Patamécanique, Bristol, RIThe PRC is delighted to have on loan from le Musée Patamécanique a new version ofHans Spinnermen’s The Dream of Timmy Bumble Bee and an accompanying poem. Born inLondon, Mr. Spinnermen received a degree in Quantum Engineering from Pata Polytechnicbefore working in the US government and pursuing experiments in alchemy. He worked forfive years, often in the dark, to develop the unique process you see here, reciting Lewis Carrol’sThrough the Looking Glass to himself to pass the time. The resulting device—completewith such wondrous sounding components as an “etheric emitter” and a “vitalium boiler,”relies on aspects of the “infrathin” dimension. As he explains in a heavily footnoted statement,“indeed, any form encased within the apparatus is made back-less and side-less. Onlyfront-ness remains.” Visitors are encouraged to walk around the bell-jar topped contraption totry to capture a glimpse the luminous bee, but be warned “you might catch your own tail.”The curator of le Musée Patamécanique and Mr. Spinnermen’s representative, Neil Salleydescribes le Musée as a hybrid institution: a museum/laboratory/carnival of the senses.An experience that defies explanation, le Musée is open by appointment only (visit www.museepata.org to book a tour) and includes Mr. Spinnermen’s work along with that of otherpatamechanical practitioners. The inventions on display are an amalgamation of old andnew, a true delight for all of the senses (and maybe even some you didn’t know you had)with a healthy dose of enchantment thrown in for good measure.Hans Spinnermen, Various views and preliminarysketches of The Dream of Timmy Bumble Bee, 2007,materials include Polycarbonate, Aluminum, Glass,Copper, Iron, Brass, Vitallium, Resurrectine, VibrioPhosphoreum, Radionic Components, Poem, Electricity,Bee, dimensions variable, Courtesy of and on loanfrom the collection of Musée Patamécanique. Frommore information about Hans Spinnermen pleasecontact Neil Salley at Curatorial@museepata.orgParting ThoughtsIf our journey thus far has progressed (or digressed?) further and further into the inscrutable,then we have succeeded. This slippage cuts to the core of devices and museums of yoreand perhaps offers us solace in an increasingly virtual world. When asked “how does thatwork?” some of the artists in Picture Show will explain and some will not. To conclude, I offera few thoughts courtesy of a true mecca for followers of the latter philosophy, the Museumof Jurassic Technology. “In its original sense,” reads a museum brochure, “The term museummeant a spot dedicated to the muses—a place where man’s mind could attain a mood ofaloofness above everyday affairs.” Founder David Wilson, in a radio interview with theauthor of Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast,and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology, elaborated further on the museum’s mission, asenitment that could just as easily pertain to the core aspiration of Picture Show:“One of the things that we are greatly interested in is helping people to achieve states ofwonder…we feel that confusion can be a very creative state of mind; in fact, confusion canact as a vehicle to open people’s minds. The hard shell of certainty can be shattered andonce that certainity is shattered then I feel people are more open to broader influences.”Curiouser and curiouser indeed!