“A Cabinet of Natural Curiosities”
Published 8:00 am Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Popular in the 16th to 19th centuries amongst the rich and powerful of Europemonarchs, feudal lords, barons, and the likewere rooms called cabinets of curiosities, or wunderkammers. Its where they kept and displayed their collections of artifacts, treasures and unexplained natural curiosities, like once-living things floating in jars of preservative juice, carcasses of exotic creatures and art pilfered on pillaging adventures. They were a kids dream-come-true junk-drawer. Roq la Rue has put together their own cabinet of absurd surrealist pop art based around the conflicting roles of animals in the lives of humans. We keep them as pets and we eat them for dinner. We have blatant disregard for their share of space on the planet, put them in inadequate recreations of their natural habitats at the zoo so we can take cute, cuddly pictures of them, and give them the leading role in childrens stories. The twenty-five artists involved in the collective show ran with this emotionally-charged and potentially depressing subject in the direction of the strange and fantastic. If you like weird, and sometimes creepy, art then this show is for you. Roq La Rue, 2312 Second Ave., 374-8977. Hours: 1-6 p.m. Wed.-Sat. Show continues through March 1. BRION KINNE
Feb. 8-March 1, 2008
