Curio Cabinet

Talk about fierce florals! Famed British fashion and portrait photographer Nadine Ijewere is known for challenging standard perceptions of beauty. Her newest, aptly-named exhibit, Beautiful Disruption, runs until September 2 at C/O Berlin’s Amerika Haus in Berlin, Germany. It features photos of Black models who might normally be passed over, in the mainstream fashion world, due to their race, age, size, or gender presentation. In Flower Earrings, above, an androgynous model stands against a peach-colored background, looking into the camera with a neutral expression. They wear a blue men’s suit, white undershirt, gray tie, and large, metallic, white-and-gold floral earrings. Unlike many fashion photographers who follow strict, separate fashion rules for male and female models, Ijewere highlights her model’s gender-neutral look by mixing traditionally male and female fashion accessories. “I want to continue celebrating beauty, and help to reshape what has been the ‘beauty ideal,” Ijewere said in a recent interview with Vogue. “This is an important part of my journey.” Here’s hoping that Ijewere continues “disrupting” (and hopefully expanding) the fashion world's definition of beauty for years to come!
 

[Image description: a fashion model wearing a blue suit, gray tie and large floral earrings.] Credit & copyright: Source
 

Below: two more of Ijewere’s photos, Seashell and Boys in Rainbow Suits.

Written by: Maria C.

That tugboat’s having a rough day! The Cuyahoga River, in Cleveland, Ohio, has had a long history of river fires. Not until this day in 1969, however, was something finally done about it. In the 1952 black-and-white photo above, firefighters on a bridge above the river spray water toward a tugboat below. Enveloped in smoke, the tugboat is headed straight for a flaming oil slick on the water’s surface. By 1969, at least a dozen similar fires had taken place due to the city’s habit of dumping industrial waste into the river. On June 22, however, an increasingly environmentally-aware American public demanded that something be done after a spark from nearby train tracks ignited waste in the water. The following year, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) was formed, partially due to the impact of the fire on the public consciousness. The Clean Water Act, which established national water quality standards, passed just one year later. Unfortunately, the Cuyahoga has caught fire a few more times since 1969, most recently on August 25, 2020. At least the 1969 fire pushed the government to protect U.S. waterways as a whole. Just maybe don’t drink directly from the Cuyahoga anytime soon!
 
[Image description: A black and white photo of a tugboat headed toward a flaming oil slick atop the Cuyahoga River, surrounded by billowing smoke. Water arches overhead from the hoses of firefighters on a nearby bridge. ]
 

Below: a photo of the most recent Cuyahoga River fire on August 25, 2020.

Written by: Maria C.

She’s imposing, yet tranquil. This 18-foot-tall sculpture is one of five enormous pieces by South African artist Daniel Popper, commissioned by and now on display at the Morton Arboretum in Illinois. In Umi, which means “life” in Swahili and “mother” in Arabic, a woman is portrayed from the torso up. While her head, neck, and hands appear to be solid wood, the majority of her body is made up of what look like twisting tree branches. The inside of her body is hollow, yet she is clearly pregnant, resting her hands on her round stomach with a serene expression. In a statement on his website, Popper explained that Umi is meant to represent “the archetypal mother earth, who welcomes visitors into her womb, and a reminder of our connection to nature, and our responsibility to create, nurture and care for our environment.” This theme of connecting with the environment is echoed throughout Popper’s fittingly-named Human + Nature collection, which is scheduled to remain on display for at least a year. Plenty of time for an art-focused Illinois road trip!

 
Umi, Daniel Popper (1983-), 2020 , Glass fibre, reinforced concrete, steel, 18 feet (216 inches), Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois

 
Below: two more of Popper’s Morton Arboretum sculptures, Heartwood and Sentient.
 

Written by: Maria C.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… it's the anniversary of Jaws' release! On this day in 1975, Jaws became what some call Hollywood’s first “mega-blockbuster,, shattering box office records and changing the nature of summer movie releases forever. The movie’s success was a shock to many who worked on it, since its production was plagued by problems, from screenplay issues to budget trouble to famously malfunctioning animatronic sharks.
 

Today, few people remember that Jaws was based on a book. Universal Pictures producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown purchased the rights to Peter Benchley’s 1973, after deciding that it was the “most exciting thing” they’d ever read. However, according to Stephen Spielberg’s 1997 biography, Brown later said that he and Zanuck would never have bought the rights if they’d read the book more closely, since they would have realized how difficult shooting it would be.
 

Jaws'problems began immediately. John Sturges, the director that Zanuck and Brown wanted for the project, wasn’t available. Instead, they offered the director’s chair to Dick Richards...but, oddly, Richards kept confusing Jaws’ shark for a whale, even after being corrected. Zanuck and Brown were so annoyed that they fired Richards and turned the movie over to a 26-year-old, Stephen Spielberg. Spielberg loved Benchley’s novel, but he had already directed a recent action movie about a crazed truck driver, and was terrified of becoming known as the “truck and shark director.” He ended up trying to leave Jaws for another project, but was forced to stay due to contract obligations. Initially, it was agreed that Benchley would write the movie’s screenplay, but Spielberg, Zanuck and Brown were unhappy with every version he turned in. Spielberg did have some luck when Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Howard Sackler agreed to do an uncredited rewrite. Comedy writer Carl Gottlieb, of The Odd Couple, agreed to a one-week dialogue-polish...which quickly turned into a complete rewrite over the course of just nine weeks. As filming began, each scene’s script was usually written just 24 hours in advance during cast and crew dinners in which everyone threw ideas around. Yet Jaws’ problems finding a director and script were nothing compared to the havoc wreaked by Bruce, the animatronic shark.
 

Bruce wasn’t actually one shark, but three. The 25-foot-long animatronic behemoths, designed by acclaimed art director Joe Alves and nicknamed after Spielberg’s lawyer, Bruce Ramer, each served a slightly different function. One was a “sea-sled shark” meant to be towed behind a boat, and two were animatronic “platform” sharks, one with wiring only visible on its right side, and one with wiring only visible on its left. Unfortunately, they had only been tested in freshwater. Spielberg had insisted on shooting in the Atlantic Ocean, making Jaws the first major motion-picture ever to be filmed at sea. Saltwater wreaked havoc on the sharks’ delicate pneumatic hoses and corroded their wires. According to Brown, in the 1995 documentary The Making of Jaws, “the first shark test...simply sank. We thought our careers in motion pictures had gone with it. Everything that could go wrong with the shark went wrong.” Since each platform shark required on-call experts to fix recurring problems, non-functional sharks quickly caused the film’s budget to balloon from $3.5 million to $9 million. Meanwhile, its production schedule jumped from 55 days to 159. This was on top of other problems caused by ocean filming. Cameras were often ruined by sea spray and bad weather shut down production so frequently that crew members began calling the movie “Flaws”.
 

Yet, in a twist of fate, the movie’s problems became strengths. The actors’ exhaustion from long hours spent at sea lent a lifelike quality to their shark-hunting characters. The ocean set produced beautiful lighting conditions. Because of Bruce’s frequent breakdowns, Spielberg simply couldn’t show the shark on-screen as often as he wanted, so he turned to a staple low-budget-horror filming technique: making the camera into the monster’s point-of-view. Jaws became famous for suspenseful scenes of the camera moving upward through the water, toward innocent beachgoers, underscored by John Williams’ famous two-note “shark theme”. The film spawned multiple sequels and made Spielberg one of the most famous directors in Hollywood. In retrospect, maybe the cast and crew shouldn’t have spoken so ill of old Bruce!

 

[Image description: Jaws director Stephen Spielberg, wearing sunglasses, poses in the mouth of the film’s animatronic shark. ] Credit & copyright: Universal Pictures

 
Written by: Maria C.

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

Title: In the Midst of Chaos, There is Opportunity
Artist: Mary Sibande (b. 1982)
Created: 2017
Medium: fiberglass, vinyl, metal, painted wood, 100% cotton, and polyester fiberfill
Dimensions: 314.96 x 157.48 x 7.87 in (800 x 400 x 20 cm)
Current location: Gallery MOMO, Johannesburg, South Africa
 

This isn't your typically play battle. South African artist Mary Sibande is creating incredible visual stories with sculptures like In the Midst of Chaos, There is Opportunity, featuring familiar green toy soldiers in a fantastical setting. In an earlier series focused on the character "Sophie," Sibande addresses the history of apartheid and maid work in her matrilineal heritage. With these green army men sculptures and this central female figure—very likely Sophie in a different context—Sibande has said she wants to explore her father's history, partially in relation to his military experiences: "My parents separated when I was two years old and I was surrounded by my mother’s side of the family. How to include him, how to introduce him?" The soldiers' hobbyhorses give off an air of playfulness that contrasts heavily against the grotesque, red predator animals and Sophie's sinewy head bondage The resulting scene would not be the kind in movies, where there are clear winners; In the Midst of Chaos shows uncertainty in violence through its contradictory cast and a central figure who is equal parts noble and terrifying.

 

Image credit & copyright: Zeitz Mocaa Museum
 

It's Flashback Friday! Enjoy this favorite from the Curio Cabinet archives.
 

Sometimes big things come in small packages. We're taking a look at a whole different side of the famous baby photographer of the '90s, Anne Geddes. While Geddes blew up after an Oprah appearance, she claims sales of her work have slowed down due to the changing online market for photography. Since about 2015, she has focused on behind-the-scenes Patreon work, and her role as an ambassador for the March of Dimes, a global project which supports prematurely-born babies. Above is Jack Holding Maneesha, an image Geddes took in 1993 and used as promotional material for the 2014 World Prematurity Day. Little Maneesha was finally going home after a long stay in the hospital when Geddes captured the image of the sleeping little girl in her father's strong hands. The tenderness, fragility, and beauty of Jack Holding Maneesha is a testament to Geddes' impeccable eye for understanding her subjects: "[We need to teach children] the values of harmony, love, understanding, tolerance, and an appreciation of other cultures now,'' she once said. "Because every newborn baby represents our eternal chance at new beginnings."
Image credit & copyright: Anne Geddes / March of Dimes