Wunderkammer: Curiosities fill this cabinet in Tacoma show
Forget davenports and credenzas. Every home should have a wunderkammer.
“wunderkammer” is the German word for a cabinet of curiosities. The home fashion took off in the Renaissance and lasted into Victorian times, though they’ve never really disappeared. That cabinet full of seashells in your TV room? It’s a wunderkammer.
Tacoma artist Lisa Kinoshita has created a large wunderkammer of sorts at the Foss Waterway Seaport and filled it with the work of regional artists and museum specimens.
“wunderkammer: Artifacts, False Memories and Projections” opens this week in conjunction with Maritime Fest. The show runs through Aug. 30.
In their earliest days, curiosity cabinets were filled with natural specimens — some fake — collected by explorers. They were usually in the inventory of the well-heeled and could be considered the world’s first museums.
Inspired by wunderkammers, Kinoshita has curated contemporary art alongside objects from the Seaport’s permanent collections.
The show draws from Northwest artists working in glass, video, ceramics, and mixed media. Kinoshita says the exhibit will “delight and confound viewers, and suggest a collection of curiosities for the digital age.”
Other artists include Justin Gibbens, Marc Dombrosky/Shannon Eakins, Chuck Iffland, Alice Di Certo/Kyle Dillehay, Steve Jensen, Alexander Keyes, Nicholas Nyland, Jenny Pohlman/Sabrina Knowles, Holly Senn, Jessica Spring, Brent Watanabe, Mishele Dupree Winter, Robert Zinkevich, Renee Adams and David Blakesley.
WUNDERKAMMER: ARTIFACTS, FALSEMEMORIES AND PROJECTIONS
When: Through Aug. 30.
Where: Foss Waterway Seaport, 705 Dock St., Tacoma.
Admission: Free during the festival; regular admission applies after July 19.
Information: mossandmineral.com, fosswaterwayseaport.org, maritimefest.org.
This story was originally published July 14, 2015 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Wunderkammer: Curiosities fill this cabinet in Tacoma show."