99
North Main
Rochester, VT 05767
(802) 767-9670
Rosamond Purcell
Links to more examples of Rosamond's Purcell work:
Artist’s Statement:
'Taking Chances' includes work drawn from several decades and reflects my preoccupations with disintegration of material objects, with natural history, words, books and the history of World War 1 as assembled from fragmented newspapers or fashioned into surreal landscapes.{see collages/ Enola Gay) Since the early 1980s I have worked as a photographer in natural history collections in Europe and the United States and since the late 1980s I have assembled a large collection of ruined, formerly useful objects.
Compelled by turn to take pictures and also to write, I can attest to the magnetic draw from both sides: the light of day that beckons and the words that draw me in. The ways in which people move and look affect my visual process all day long, and yet I do not photograph them often. Over the last decades, in my work I have practiced the art of still-life, leaving the fascination of portraiture almost entirely to my eyes. “Still Life” in photography is often a misnomer for when set in natural light everything has a pulse.
In my work it is the light that changes from frame to frame, it is light that animates whatever is set before the lens.
The material nature of the subject matter is secondary to the passage of light and therefore time. That is why the disintegrating dice are as fascinating to me as the Jungle Fowl, the perfect egg or the Tin Boy.
In the mid 1980s I came across an enormous derelict antique and junk yard in Maine and promptly dug in for twenty years of observational haunting of the place. Although by then I was a devoted photographer, those years were divided for me between practicing photography in natural history museums and writing literary soliloquies about Owls Head Maine. I had a longing to write about the place and it’s gentle (and photogenic!) owner, William Buckminster. I took relatively few photographs in Owls Head given the number of years spent in its thrall. That’s because I found so much in every rediscovered piece of ‘junk’ that burst into language; the unearthed treasures I found and bore away were descriptively far more eloquent in words it seemed than a mere documentary photograph could convey.
Here is a list of what had happened to fabric, industrial metal scraps, buoys, toasters, teddy bears and out-board motors to change them forever— these things— impressions too immediate, perhaps much too three-dimensional and sharp—to be relegated to two-dimensions or even to be filtered by ‘effusions of light’. Short of showing you just how distressed the artifacts appeared, language came pouring to the rescue:
“Fraying, tattered, cracked, flattened, swollen, dried, scrawny, collapsed, shredded, peeling, torn, warped, weathered, faded, bristling, moldy, clenched, tangled, punctured, battered, bashed-in, scooped-out, withered, engorged, trampled, toppled, crushed, bald, listing, leaning, twisting, hanging, buried, wedged, impaled, straggling, stretched, disjointed, disemboweled, skinned, docked, gnawed, entrenched.”
The Book/Nest comes from Owls Head and Book Cloth too. One photograph is of an artifact composed of two weathered books and a mouse's nest naturally formed. The other is of a glued- together construction made of faded books and fragmented text. One represents a found object. The other has been invented out of scraps. Both convey the flavor of the place they came from.
It is language too that inspires invented scenes. It was the text by Paul Fussell from The Great War and Modern Memory that inspired the collages of newspaper aerial views and damaged artifacts:
"One would have to be mad, or close to it, to credit talismans, in the first quarter of the twentieth century, with the power to deflect bullets and shell fragments. And yet no front-line soldier or officer was without his amulet, and every tunic pocket became a reliquary. Lucky coins, buttons, dried flowers, hair cuttings, New Testaments, pepples from home, medals of St.Christopher and St.George, childhood dolls and teddy bears, poems or Scripture verses written out and worn in a small bag around the neck..... so urgent was the need that no talisman was too absurd.” - Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, Oxford University Press, 1975 .
Artist’s Vitae:
BOOKS
1975 A MATTER OF TIME.
David R. Godine, publisher, Boston. Award (American Institute of Graphic Arts).
1980 HALF LIFE.
David R. Godine, publisher.
1986
ILLUMINATIONS, A BESTIARY.
Text by Stephen Jay Gould. WW Norton, publisher.
Award (American Institute of Graphic Arts).
1991A COLLECTOR’S CATALOGUE
Limited Edition Artist’s book. Bow and Arrow Press, Cambridge.
1991 NATURALEZAS
Museo Nacional de Ciancias Naturales, Madrid, publisher.
1992 FINDERS KEEPERS, Eight Collectors.
Text by Stephen Jay Gould. WW Norton, publisher.
1995 Photographs for SUSPENDED ANIMATION
by Dr. F Gonzalez Crussi, Harcourt Brace
1996 CURIOSITEIT,
Collections of the Universiteitsmuseum Utrecht
1998 SPECIAL CASES,
Natural Anomalies and Historical Monsters
Chronicle Books, publisher
1999 SWIFT AS A SHADOW
Extinct and Endangered Birds and Animals.
Collections of University of Leiden. Houghton-Mifflin, publishers
Best of Show (43rd annual New England Book Show).
2000 CROSSING OVER: Where Art and Science Meet (with Stephen Jay Gould)
Harmony Books (Random House)
2001 60 photographs for A Long Look at Nature by Margaret Martin,
University North Carolina Press
2002 DICE Deception, Fate and Rotten Luck Text by Ricky Jay. Quantuck Lane Press
2003 OWLS HEAD Quantuck Lane Press
2006 BOOKWORM Quantuck Lane Press
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
1990 HIDDEN WONDERS, An Engagement Calendar. 68 color photographs.
Bishop Museum Press and University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
1991 THREADS OF EVOLUTION, A Calendar created for ORACLE Computer Co.
Forward Publishers, London. 12 color photographs.
1997-8 Calendars for 1997 and 1998 for American Museum of Natural History
Workman Publishers, New York, twelve color photographs each
2006 TAKING THINGS SERIOUSLY
2006 Selective Subversions (May issue), Conjunctions Magazine (portfolio)
ARTICLES
1995 Art Bulletin “The Problematics of Collecting” July, volume LXXVll number 2 author of The Game of the Name
1998 American Book Review, focus: “ The Monstrous and the Marvelous; The Dual Nature of the Grotesque” Purcell author of First Breath, Last Sigh
2001 Author of introduction to Rock of Ages, Sands of Time, (Barbara Page’s paintings of the fossil record). University of Chicago.
2004 Natural History Magazine. A Room Revisited (Sept issue)
2007 Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA, wrote catalogue for exhibition Medea and Her Sisters: Leonard Baskin’s Images of Women
2008 Virginia Quarterly Review: The Stories of Strangers (April issue)
PROFILES OF RWP
1998 Atlantic Monthly. “Brief Lives -- an Eye for Anomaly” (essay by Marshall Fisher on R. Purcell’s studio)
2003 Agni Magazine (Boston University). Breaking Ground Portfolio of photographs and critical essay by Sven Birkerts
2003 The Boston Globe, text by Joshua Glenn
RECENT REVIEWS
2007 “Metamorphosis” Boston Review by John Crowley ( review of Purcell’s work) Weekend America, American Public Media, discussion of Bookworm with Barbara Bogave (November)
2007 Los Angeles Times, Susan Salter Reynolds
SELECTED PORTFOLIOS OF PHOTOGRAPHS
1987 American Photographer (February).
BBC Wildlife Magazine (May).
Catalog: Torino Photographia (Ed Panini).
Harvard Magazine (bi-monthly feature with S.J. Gould thru 1989: “Fossil Endpaper”).
1988 Smithsonian Magazine (October).
1989 Smithsonian Magazine (October).
1992 Smithsonian Magazine (October)
1994-2001 The Sciences: bimonthly column “On Common Ground” (with S J Gould)
2005 Mare Magazine, (Berlin Germany) portfolio of fish photographs
2006 Art Journal (College Art Association) “Mediating Political ‘Things,’ and the Forked Tongue of Modern Culture: A Conversation with Bruno Latour,” text by Christian S. G. Katti (Spring issue); shows reconstruction of museum of Olaus Worm, Copenhagen (1655) for Two Rooms exhibition
2006 Slate (online), “State of Decay,” text by Amanda Shaffer, November ; slideshow of Purcell’s work.
2007 National Geographic A Fin is a Wing is a Limb (November 2007) photographs illustrating evolutionary development.
INSTALLATIONS
1989 DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, A Trail of Ash in “Ten Artists, Ten Visions”
1991 Museo Nacional de Ciencias, Madrid, Naturalezas (and other museums in Spain)
1992 Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, MA, Musee de l’Ame
1993 Museo Nacional de Ciencias, Madrid, El Real Gabinete Permanent installation of the history of the museum’s collections
2001 Photographic Resource Center, Boston, Strange Attractor: In the Orbit of the Artist (Exhibition Curator)
2003 Santa Monica Museum of Art. Two Rooms: 1655 / 2000 Traveling exhibition, Purcell’s reconstruction of the 17th century museum of Olaus Worm and of her studio
(October-December) Tufts University Art Gallery: Two Rooms: 1655 / 2000
2004 January-March Mount Holyoke Art Museum: Two Rooms: 1655 / 2000
2004-2005 Harvard University, Science Center Special Exhibition Gallery: Bringing Nature Inside, 17th Century Natural History, Classification, and Vision.
2006 Smith College, Northampton, MA, Dissolution and the Singular Object
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS (2 Person where noted)
1972 MIT Creative Photo Lab (2).
1973 Brockton Art Center (2).
1975 University of Iowa Art Center.
Neikrug Gallery, NYC.
1976 Addison Gallery, Andover, MA.
Madison Art Center, Wisconsin.
1977 Delaware Art Museum.
Roswell Museum, New Mexico.
Gallery Fiolet, Amsterdam.
Photographer’s Gallery, London.
Il Diaframma, Milano.
Photography Place, Philadelphia.
1978 Santa Fe Gallery of Photography, New Mexico.
1980 Boston Athenæum.
Marcuse Pfeifer, NYC.
1981 Focus, San Francisco.
1982 Marcuse Pfeifer, NYC.
1983 Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara (2)
University of Vermont.
Robert Klein, Boston.
1984 Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, Michigan.
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard (2).
1985 Houston Center for Photography (2).
1986 Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.
Marcuse Pfeifer, NYC.
Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College.
1988 Academy of Fine Arts, Honolulu.
Field Museum, Chicago.
1989 Catherine Edelman Gallery,Chicago.
Marcuse Pfeiffer, NYC .
1990 Bishop Museum, Honolulu.
1992 Aiken Gallery
1993 New York Academy of Sciences: Eden in a Jar: The Collector, the Curator, and the Camera.
Center for Photographic Arts, Carmel, CA Under Glass, 2 person with Richard Ross.
1995 Cleveland Museum of Art, Extinct Animals
Gallery of Contemporary Photography Santa Monica: “Few know the sweetness of the twisted apples”
1998 Los Angeles Public Library The Writing on the Wall
1999 Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington DC. Swift as a Shadow
2000 School of Design, University of Wisconsin Nature as Teacher
College of the Atlantic Extinction Then and Now
2007 Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington DC. Bookworm
2007 Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA, Bookworm: Photographs by Rosamond Purcell
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2001-2003:
National Academy of Science, Washington DC. The Art of Neuroscience: Image and Understanding
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln Ma. Terrors and Wonders: Monsters in Contemporary Art
National Library of Medicine, Dream Anatomies; travel to California Science Center, Los Angeles (March 2005)
Mobius Gallery, Boston. Words on Fire
University of Rhode Island, Transgressions/Transformations
Ricco Moresca Gallery, New York, Mütter Museum photography
National Academy of Science, The Beauty of Phenomena; Art in the Communication of Science
Yerba Buena Museum, San Francisco: photographs from Dice: Deception Fate and Rotten Luck (text Ricky Jay)
2004 University of Wyoming Art Museum. Dice: Deception, Fate and Rotten Luck
Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT. Bottle: Contemporary Art and Vernacular Tradition
Amazing! Maine Stories, Maine Historical Society, Portland, ME (with artifacts from foundry of William Buckminster)
2006 Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME, Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale; travel to Artspace, Kansas City Art Institute
2007 L.C. Bates Museum, Hinckley, ME, Artists as Naturalists
SELECTED RECENT LECTURES
1996 University of California, Santa Barbara. Symposium: Microcosms: Perception through Possession. Lecture: Representing Possessions, with museum director David Wilson (Museum of Jurassic Technology) and artist Richard Ross (UCSB)
2000 Brooklyn Museum of Art, Marvels of Art and Nature in the Guennol Collection, public dialogue with curators Diana Fane (Brooklyn Museum) and Richard Townsend (Art Institute of Chicago)
2000-2002: The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (with novelist Rikki Ducornet); The New York Academy of Science (with Stephen Jay Gould); Peabody Essex Museum, Salem MA, and Maryland Institute College of Art (both with Dr. Gould); College Art Association, Philadelphia, February 2002, panel on Museums of Philadelphia; Maryland Institute, October 2002, panel—Sideshow Art: the Aesthetics of the Unusual, the Exaggerated, and the Abnormal; Jackson Hole Wyoming, The National Museum of Wildlife Art: Framing the Wild, panel discussion
2003 Weissman Center for Leadership, Mount Holyoke College: The Political Embryo: Reconceiving Human Reproduction: panel discussion: In Utero, Imaging and Imagining.
2004 Providence Athenaeum with RI School of Design. Symposium: Inspired by Nature; The Art of the Natural History Book
2005 Weissman Center Mount Holyoke College South Hadley, MA, lecture for conference The Metaphysics of Water
2005 University of Missouri, St. Louis public lecture
2005 Halsey Institute, Charleston, SC. Lecture.
2006 Dublin Blaschka Congress, National Museum of Ireland (Natural History). Lecture: The Properties of Light and Glass
2006 City University of New York, Graduate Center, The Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society. Lecture.
2007 Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Lecture: “THINGS is where it’s at”
James Madison University: “Double or Nothing: Metamorphic Mysteries”
Mary Baldwin College: “Metaphoric Histories”
MUSEUM AND INSTITUTIONAL REPRESENTATION
Boston Athenæum
Calvin College, Michigan
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
Delaware Art Museum
Harry Ransome Humanities Center, Austin, Texas
Houston Museum of Art
Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts
Metropolitan Museum, New York
Mount Holyoke Art Museum
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
National Academy of Science, Washington, DC
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD
New Orleans Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Polaroid Corporation
San Francisco Museum of Art
University of Massachusetts
Victoria and Albert Museum, London