Obsessed With Oddities? This Place is for You!
Weird stuff. Oddities. Strange. Perplexing. Interesting.
I got a thing for anything and everything that describes the above. When I was a little kid I would get back home from school as soon as possible to watch reruns of Ripley’s Believe It or Not on Spike (you know the one hosted by Dean Cain…the guy from Lois and Clark…no you don’t). I would get the latest Guinness book of World Records and see who had the longest tongue or the most tattoos. Research about archaic, scary medical equipment. What I am trying to say is that I like weird and sometimes gross things.
Photo Credit: marysuedonsky.wordpress.com
Which is why I decided to take a trip to the Morbid Anatomy Museum. Tis’ a pure lack building on 3rd Ave and 7th Street in Gowanus, established in 2014 by Joanna Ebenstein, Tracy Hurley Martin, and writer Tonya Hurley. The museum is an exhibition space dedicated to showcasing neglected or forgotten histories. This space also hosts lectures with themed artifacts about death and society, occult-stuff, anatomy (duh), medicine, arcane media, and anything that is just plain odd. Here’s a list of what happening. There are always millions of things going on here!
Just…just give me a min-*violently vomits on keyboard*
The latest exhibition they have going on is Castan’s Berlin-based Panopticum collection, curated by New York’s own Ryan Murphy. To give a very, very brief rundown, Panoptica were these popular exhibitions in Europe featuring anatomical and pathological waxworks. These are things like death masks, ethnographic busts (which depict exaggerated, racist features of natives from other countries), and wax models showing signs of various diseases (syphilis, lupus, etc.). Despite all of the grossness on display, it was considered to be “high art” for the upper class during the late 19th-early 20th century.
Wait…hold on…don’t tou–*vomits on keyboard once more*
Jesus these wax artifacts were SO eccentric and so….just gruesome. There was not one moment in which I did not say, “Jesus fucking Christ, this is hardcore,” as I walked around. In all honestly, my stomach was not exactly having a field day seeing hyper-realistic models, but I trekked on. I saw naked disembodied women, genitals (LOTS of genitals) with STDs and failed pregnancy replicas, which honestly were too real. I don’t understand how an upper class, aristocratic family, poised with properness, manners, and chivalry, would find this not disturbing!? Possibly this is because these exhibitions were done under the guise of scientific research. But hell, in reality, these were displayed for the curious to bring their cash. And they did.
Near the end of the exhibition, there was a small library with books full of embalming methods, surgical/diagnosis procedures, and funeral customs. I didn’t look at all of them, of course, but they were gruesome and fascinating. They provided further insight on why the museum does these showings on not only wax models but neglected histories.
As I left the exhibition space and entered back into the main entrance, coffee was being served. It is also advertised as a café shop where you can purchase actual antique medical equipment like (hopefully empty) bottles of anesthetic, syringes and gynecology instruments. Despite the disgusting knick-knacks and peculiar medical instruments I encountered, I had a fun time. The weird and unnatural provide an educational experience. It showed how people lived or enjoyed their free time in the past, and the Morbid Anatomy Museum certainly keeps that educational experience alive. Freaking me out, and hopefully freaking you out too very soon.
They have new exhibits and presentation all throughout the month. Check out their website for more information about all the amazing things they have to offer.
Who knew cleaning up vomit from a laptop could be so diffi-*vomits blood and passes out*
All photos (except for the building of the museum itself) courtesy of the fool who wrote this article
