Collectors Chamber The Henry Gallery, Seattle, Washington 1994. The Oregon Biennial, Portland, Oregon 1997.

The Collectors Chambers or “Wunderkammer” refers to an Explorers Library in which nature’s bounty and exotic objects were housed. The tradition of such structures originated in the late Renaissance with the huge fortunes amassed by European capitalists on their “Voyages of Discovery”. The Wunderkammer is the European ancestor of our museums. “Voyages of Discovery” caused the number of plants known by Europeans to quadruple between 1550 and 1700. Prior to this huge influx, botany was studied for medicinal and culinary purposes. The samples were organized alphabetically. With the expansion of these botanical samples a new organizing principle that could be applied universally was needed. Carl von Linnaeus’ “Sexual System” was adopted in 1735 as such an organizing principle. This system gave no indication of the indigenous cultures’ knowledge of these plants. Each organism was fitted to a single hierarchy based on the plants sex. Linneaus’ system of binary nomenclature still serves as the basis of biological classification today. Over the course of the last year I have collected and observed a tremendous variety of exotic plants growing in the Botany Greenhouses at the University of Washington. As I collected these flowers, I became fascinated by the language used to identify and catalogue them and the traditional structures that these precious and rare pieces of nature were placed into. I have adopted this scientific language, and the cabinet structure as part of my visual language in order to exhibit my collection. The information I have provided is not meant as a linear cataloging of these samples but rather a reference to historical facts and scientific language. I collected these flowers in order to learn more about their origins, to observe their strange and beautiful forms, to watch them decay, and to attempt to preserve them. The brief life of a flower made me acutely aware of the ephemeral nature of all things. I have enshrined these forms in order to capture them, to stop their decaying action, and to present them publicly.

De Viscerum Structura Installation View

The Chamber was originally fabricated in 1994 for the MFA thesis exhibition at the Unviverasty of Washington and installed at the Henry Gallery. This work was continually worked on and reinstalled at Marylhurst University in 1995. It was in The 1997 Oregon Biennial, the Portland Art Museum, the where it was awarded first prize Portland, Oregon. The piece traveled to the Schieder Museum of Art, Ashland, Oregon, the University of Oregon Museum of Art, Eugene, Oregon, and the Willamette University Museum of Art, Salem, Oregon. Description The tall cabinet structure with the subtle curvature of a female’s body, has a single spinal cord-like florescent tube which runs down the center illuminating the glass plates layered on the shelves alluding to the body’s interior. Central in the installation is a tall examination table that allows the viewer to further inspect the plant material under magnifying glasses. Adjacent to this is a smaller table, which holds a 4 x 5 projector to enlarge the slides to a three-foot square in order to closely examine the tissue as it dried. Lining the wall are shelves which hold eighteen cases in which rare orchids and tropical flowers are pinned into patterns and documented with their translated Latin names. The graphics I used on the glass plates of medical charts, diagrams of female organs and sound wave patterns were used to point out our desire to label and order nature.

Collectors Chamber Cabinet holding glass slides with pressed flowers. Vertical grain fir, florescent lights. (10’H x 20”W x 20”D)

Collectors Chamber Installation view, Left: Cabinet holding glass slides with pressed flowers, (10’H x 20”W x 20”D) Center: Examination table with slides and magnifying glasses, (7’L x 40”H x 18”W) Right: Table with slide projector, (2’L x 42”H x 18”W) Furniture, vertical grain fir with florescent lights. Back Wall: Shelves holding cases of Orchids and Tropical flowers, 18 cases each. (18”W x 20”L)

Collectors Chamber Back wall, Shelves holding 18 cases of Orchids and tropical flowers pinned into patterns and labeled. Cedar Cases, Glass. (18”W x 20”L)