Portrait of Dr. Thomas Dent Mutter (circa 1846). Courtesy Mütter Museum via NY Times

The Mütter Museum in Philadelphia was originally founded in 1856 as an adjunct collection of teaching materials for the city’s College of Physicians, following a bequest of the personal collection of Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter to the school. Mütter was one of the first physicians in United States to collect wet specimens, tools and anatomical models for the purpose of medical demonstration in an age where surgical examples were often difficult to procure.

Within decades, as advances in the medical sciences began to outpace the Museum’s ability to add relevant teaching material to its stores, the Mütter began to collect what would become the repository of oddities and artifacts that it has become known for today.

c. George Widman/Mütter Museum, Courtesy Mütter Museum via NY Times

The Museum’s collection consists of an astounding number items reflecting changes in the technology of medicine, as well as memorabilia belonging to present and past practitioners. Housed in 19th century glass cases, the scientific materials of yesteryear have become an enjoyably macabre journey into the history of bodily examination. On a recent visit, highlights of the permanent collection included:

An overview of the history of conjoined twins and their biographies, related to the Museum’s possession of the livers and a plaster cast of Chang and Eng, the original and most famous Siamese twins of the 19th century.

The free cell-phone audio tour of the Mütter’s most popular items, which revealed in-depth information about the Soap Lady, a mysterious corpse exhumed from Philadelphia’s Washington Square Park whose body is covered in a layer of waxy soaplike material that essentially mummified her remains.

The "soap lady" is prepared for an X-ray at the Mütter Museum. Researchers (from left) Frank Cerrone, Michael Schlenk and Gerald J. Conlogue. (Photo: John Costello/Philadelphia Inquirer)

Bookbindings of tanned human skin (a predecessor of Vim Delvoye or Catts & Zurr’s skin pieces?)

Account of William Corder's trial bound in his skin. Not part of the Mütter collection. (Dan Alban/Harvard Law Record)

Two flat-files containing a meticulously catalogued collection of 2,000 objects extracted from people’s throats.

Tucked away into the back of the side rooms, the rotating exhibits included the opulent Extraordinary Bodies: Photographs from the Mütter Museum, a selection of images from the Mütter’s archives paired with a selection of images by contemporary photographers who have incorporated pieces from the Museum’s collection into their works.

Joel-Peter Witkin, Harvest, 1984, silver gelatin print.

Mütter Museum:  19 South Twenty-Second Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103

Tags: 19th century, anatomy, Chang and Eng, collection, College of Physicians, contemporary, human skin, Joel Peter Witkin, medical, Museum, Mutter Museum, oddities, Philadelphia, photographers, photographs, science, Siamese twins, Soap Lady, specimens, surgical, Thomas Mutter, throats.

Alex Bag, still from GladiaDaters, 2005, video. 30 minutes. Image courtesy Elizabeth Dee Gallery

I became a fan of Alex Bag’s too-infrequently seen work while in art school, the moment I saw her biting, too-close-to-home impression of an art school student in Untitled Fall ‘95. Bag’s unerring ability to observe and recreate the awkwardly humorous, often inappropriate moments that lurk behind the walls of our public personas is one of the reasons her newly-commissioned video installation for the Whitney Museum is a must-see.

The work opened to the public this past weekend in the lobby gallery of the museum, and is comprised of a large single-channel video screening continuously on one wall, with viewer seating made up of large, primary-colored low blocks atop a giant white shag rug in the center of the room.  In a corner stands a desk, puppet and wheelchair used in the video. (side note: Pipilotti Rist also designed participatory, comfortable seating that was conducive to lingering for her recent exhibit at MoMA, a trend I’m hoping will carry over to more lengthy video installations.)

Carol Corbett, from the Carol Corbett show. Image courtesy Bill Cappello.

The video consists of several interconnected segments inspired by a 1970s children’s syndicated television show, The Patchwork Family, and its predecessor, The Carol Corbett Show. Both shows were hosted by Bag’s mother, sitting behind a desk with a puppet; Alex was a guest on the show as a child. Bag herself plays host in her new work, which includes real children but subverts the familiar tropes of children’s television programming by introducing dark themes and adult subjects.

Alex Bag, still from Coven Services - Demo Reel, 2004, DVD with sound, 19 minutes. Image courtesy Elizabeth Dee Gallery

I was only able to catch about 40 minutes of the video, which included scenes of a depressed, suicidal Bag being verbally abused by a sadistic red dragon puppet, a children’s fingerpainting session with a lighthearted Bag dressed in a leotard, a guest musician in a wheelchair leading a sing-and-play-along, and best of all, Bag in a black gothic dress and wig reading a violent novel aloud to three young children superimposed onto footage of apocalyptic destruction. Among the additional characters in the piece that I did not get to see are an animal wrangler, a wizard, and a psycho-pharmacologist, according to the press release. Another visit is definitely warranted.

On view at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Related: Alex Bag on her new work, in last week’s Artforum.com

Tags: Alex Bag, Art, art school, artforum, Carol Corbett, children, contemporary, installation, kids, Museum, Patchwork Family, puppet, show, video, Whitney.