Collage as Gesamtkunstwerk

I'm still reading my way through "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" which is a chapter from Dialectic of Enlightenment ( Adorno & Horkheimer, 1944). There I came across a marvelous German word: gesamtkunstwerk.

Translated as" total work of art," the idea of gesamtkunstwerk implies ideal work of art, universal artwork, synthesis of the arts, comprehensive artwork, all-embracing art form, or total artwork. The term was first used in 1827 by the German writer and philosopher K. F. E. Trahndorff. As a "supernaturalist," Trahndorff opposed theological rationalism and embraced the indeducible, supernatural and mystical nature of religious revelation. German opera composer Richard Wagner used the term in his 1849 essays "Art and Revolution" and "The Artwork of the Future", where he speaks of unifying all works of art via the theater.

I see collage as a synthesis of both the visual arts (painting, photography, graphic design, etc.) and of the ephemeral bits of life, memories and dreams; a curio cabinet of the soul.

And, in keeping with the German theme, check out Alexander Korzer-Robinson's amazing collages constructed with the German encyclopaedia Brockhaus Konversationslexikon.

Eugenia's Tribute

I'm enjoying the process of collecting materials for a tribute to Eugenia Shorrock, owner of The Reptile Zoo formerly of Alton Bay, New Hampshire. I feel a connection to Eugenia because, like me, she re-located to New Hampshire from Massachusetts and created an idiosyncratic retail business to reflect her passionate interests. We were pretty much the same age, too. I was 42 when I took to the hills. Eugenia was 44.

I have a couple of ideas so this tribute might evolve into two pieces. In one, I want to emphasize Eugenia's herpetological interests. I have a snake skin, a road kill that I found and skinned myself, which now has a purpose. An image of an old game board in the shape of a snake will also be incorporated, along with various images from old encyclopedias.

For the second piece, I'd like to assemble an Ethnographical Curio Cabinet based on Eugenia's collections of African and South American artifacts, particularly her infamous shrunken heads later acquired by Ripley's Believe It or Not! I've collected a number of wooden jewelry cabinets over the years. One of them will become "Eugenia's Curio Cabinet."

I must confess that I have had a strange fascination for these tribal trophies ever since I saw the shrunken head in the collection of the Peabody Museum (now the Peabody Essex Museum) in Salem, Massachusetts. Back then admission was free and I could walk to the museum from my grandmother's house just to view the shrunken head and the mummy hand.

These two c.1900 images are from Photographs from the Library of Congress American Memory collection Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920.

I just discovered an interesting blog called The Miss Rumphius Effect. One of the comments in a post about a children's book titled Behind the Museum Door: Poems to Celebrate the Wonders of Museums, is a poem by author Jane Yolen about shrunken heads: "I used to spend hours as a child - Gazing into the glassy eyes, - Contemplating the sewn-together lips." Sounds like she had a similar fascination!

And a blog called Evolving Complexity has information about a recent National Geographic Channel documentary on the search for the Amazon headshrinkers.

The Collections of Eugenia Skinner Shorrock

Alton Bay, New Hampshire Reptile Zoo - Part 3.

The auction catalog, The Collections of Eugenia Skinner Shorrock - Session III from Michael Bennett Auctions that I found on eBay arrived the other day. I was happy to note that it contained photos in addition to some biographical information on both Eugenia and her father, Ernest Martin Skinner (1866-1960) who founded Skinner Organ Company in 1901.

Eugenia showed a keen interest in reptiles at an early age. She graduated from LaSalle College in 1917 and married Ernest Shorrock that same year. She became the corresponding secretary for the Boston Aquarium Society, a post she held for over 11 years. In the early 1930's she began to seriously collect snakes, reptiles and curios. She was in great demand as a lecturer at schools, social clubs and other societies.

Eugenia purchased a farm in Alton, New Hampshire in 1940 to house her ever-increasing collection of snakes and exotic animals and opened 'The Reptile Zoo' to the public. She also opened 'Worldwide Gifts' in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Eugenia closed the shop in Portsmouth in 1960 and 'The Reptile Zoo' in 1967 but continued to operate her gift shop in Alton Bay until 1990. Eugenia Skinner Shorrock died on the 7th of December 1993.

My favorite item in the catalog has to be this miniature circus:

The detailed description reads as follows:

Ladies and Gentlemen, Children of All Ages - It is our pleasure to offer at PUBLIC AUCTION a fascinating example of American Folk Art - THE EXCITING HOBBYLAND MINIATURE CIRCUS

On a scale of 1" to 1', the famous Edwards family began construction of this circus in the late 1920's. Their work continued for 20 years. Some of the miniature animals came from England, France, Germany and Italy years before the outbreak of the Second World War.

In 1947, Mr. Edwards sold the circus to Mr. A. Randall Crapo of Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. . . Mrs. Eugenia Skinner Shorrock purchased the circus in 1952 and displayed it for only one year in Alton Bay, New Hampshire. It has been hidden from the public eye for 40 years and was only recently brought to light.

The circus covers 288 square feet of table space and will be offered in its entirety. . .

Unfortunately, the famous pair of shrunken heads obtained by Ripley's Believe it or Not! are described in a separate Session IV catalog of African, North American, Oceanic and South American Ethnographica. Here's the advertisement printed in the Session III catalog:

There is a fascinating full text pdf article by Steven Lee Rubenstein titled "Circulation, Accumulation, and the Power of Shuar Shrunken Heads," originally published in Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 22, Issue 3, pp. 357-399. According to Wikipedia it has been illegal to import shrunken heads into the United States since the 1940's.

Read more about Eugenia Shorrock in two previous posts: Eugenia Shorrock's Snakes and Shrunken Heads, and Alton Bay, New Hampshire Reptile Zoo. If you liked the miniature Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus, here's another one to check out posted by Jim at Dull Tool Dim Bulb.

And to all of you visiting from Marie's blog, have a great Postcard Friendship Friday!

Eugenia's Snakes and Shrunken Heads

Alton Bay, New Hampshire Reptile Zoo - Part 2.

Eugenia Skinner Shorrock (21 July 1896 - 7 December 1993) was the proprietor of The Reptile Zoo formerly of Alton Bay, New Hampshire. A collector of curios par excellence, Eugenia was quite some gal, I'm willing to bet! She kept her purse in a python cage where it was safe from robbers. Her father was Ernest M. Skinner (1866-1960) of Dorchester, Massachusetts, who was known as the most prominent builder of organs of the early 20th century.

According to a March 8, 1992 Gainesville Sun article titled "Ripleys Pays $22,000 for pair - Believe it or not," Eugenia's daughter made a killing on the sale of two shrunken heads. An accompanying photograph features grandson Rob Farrell's hand pointing to one of the heads:

Two shrunken heads, dark-skinned and complete with hair and headdresses, stared impassively as curious bidders examined them at an unusual auction of Indian artifacts Saturday.

The grapefruit-sized, 19th century South American Indian heads sold for a total of $22,000 to Ripley's Believe it or Not. It plans to display them in one of its museums, which feature oddities.

"The heads, I think, set a world record," auctioneer Michael Bennett said, adding that he expected the pair would only sell for about $14,000.

The heads were part of a collection of artifacts amassed by Eugenia Shorrock, 95, of Dover. Other items included tribal masks, wooden Indian statues and an antique buffalo skin robe. The robe, expected to sell for about $15,000 only brought $7,000. But some of the statues went for more that $10,000.

Shorrock, who lives in a nursing home, acquired her unusual collection from various sources over the years, but never traveled to South America herself, said her daughter, Ruth Farrell. "She became acquainted with people who had them and made it known she'd take anything," Farrell said.

The heads came from the Jivaro tribe, which collected enemies' heads after battle, removed the skulls, boiled the skins, then carefully shaped them by hand to retain the victims' features, Bennet said. He didn't know from which South American country they came.

(The Jivaro are a tribe of people from the Andes mountains. Read more in this article from EveryCulture.com .) The Toledo Blade picked up the same AP article with an additional quotation from Eugenia's daughter Ruth, who decided to sell the collection because she no longer had any interest in it: "Bureau drawers don't do a thing for shrunken heads. . . I like to see things used or displayed."

Eugenia Shorrock is mentioned as owner of two boa constrictors listed in the longevity literature for reptiles and amphibians. One citation is in: Snider, Andrew, and Bowler, K., Longevity of Reptiles and Amphibians in North American Collections, 2nd ed. And the other is in: Kevin Bowler, Longevity of Reptiles & Amphibians. 1977. For this information I give credit to Frank and Kate's Herpetological Web Page.

I also read on Melinda's Red Tail Boa Page that a boa at the Philadelphia Zoo, originally in the possession of Eugenia S. Shorrock for its first 33 years of life, lived for a total of 40 years 3 months and 14 days, longer than any snake species ever kept in captivity, to date.

And, finally (how cool is this!) I found a publication on eBay titled Collections - Eugenia Skinner Shorrock by Michael Bennet Auctions, Portsmouth, New Hampshire published Feb 15, 1992. The description reads: 'Softcover. Stapled binding. 44 pages, 8.5" x 11". This is session III, listing 583 items, many b/w photos.' I just purchased it with "buy it now" and I will share it with you all on a future Postcard Friendship Friday!

Domes of Silence

Here's another item from the downstairs curio cabinet. You can just catch the corner in the banner photo way over to the left.

The image of the woman will definitely find a place in a collage one day soon. I can just picture some housewife with a French temper hammering them onto everyone's chair to keep the racket down when the family converges at mealtime!

Someone told me you can still get these at the hardware store, but they cost a lot more than 10 cents for a box!

The Piano Girl

Here is an old photo from my curio cabinet. It was found inside the used player piano that my folks purchased so I could have lessons back in sixth grade.

You can see her in my banner photo for this blog, along with this other old photo:

It's funny that I never noticed how her cheeks were tinted pink until viewing the enlarged scan!

Here's a view of the back of the photo:

Her name has been written in pencil: Kate Lewis, maybe. I can't quite make it out.