The Harvard Museum of Natural History might seem like an atypical place for an art exhibit. Filled with a world-renowned collection of glass flowers, giant African mammals and incredible clusters of rocks and gems, the museum is a haven for science lovers. Surprisingly, however, it is among these artifacts that renowned photographer Rosamond Purcell chose to exhibit her latest work. "Egg and Nest: Photographs by Rosamond Purcell" is now on display at the museum. All of the photographs in the exhibit were taken from Purcell's latest book by the same name (2008).
Purcell, based out of Somerville, has made her mark on the photography world countless times with her seamless portrayals of pieces from natural history collections. She is most well known for her re-creation of Ole Worm's "wunderkammer," or "curiosity cabinet." Worm was a 17th-century Danish collector of natural treasures from far and wide, and Purcell's reconstruction will in time be on permanent display in Copenhagen.
A reconstruction of a former art exhibit seems like the ultimate still life, and this is the discipline in which Purcell shines. Many of her photographs toy with lighting and use anomalies from nature as their primary subjects.
Nature presents an endless wealth of opportunities for photography. Purcell is fascinated by the transience of natural objects and, in her own words, "the puzzle of uncertain identity."
Her interest and fascination with the natural world easily includes the contrast of birds' eggs with their nests. In her gallery statement, Purcell said, "Visually nothing could be more different than an egg and a nest. The first is always perfect, no matter what the outer variations in shape; an egg is endless, irreducible. A nest, on the other hand, is an artifact assembled by beak and claw, often messy, but always adapted to the needs of the next generation of birds."
Though Purcell reveals the disparity between the egg and the nest throughout this exhibit, she only once displays them together in the same photo. Instead, she usually offers side-by-side comparisons, allowing egg and nest to shine without one muddling or distracting from the other's intricacy and beauty. She took the photographs in 2007 on assignment for Harvard University Press with funding from the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, the organization with the largest egg and nest collection in the world.
Each egg and nest displayed in the exhibition has some unique quality. The "Bell's Vireo Nest" has decipherable newspaper clippings as some of its main foundation. The "Great-Tailed Grackle Nest" utilizes strips of audio tape amidst grass and sticks. The "Tinamou Eggs," solid and untainted, vary in shade from blue to gray to green to mauve -- each egg a different color.
Perhaps the most interesting photo is an egg "unrolled." The egg of the common murre bird is unfolded in a Mercator projection, in similar style to many projections of the globe on a flat surface. Viewing an egg in such a way allows one to see all patterns and intricacies simultaneously, whereas when looking at an egg in its original form, only one side is visible at a time.
Blue Magruder, director of communications and marketing at the museum, discussed the science museum's interest in Purcell's work. "There's so much science in eggs," Magruder told the Daily. Purcell's photographs provide a middle ground for science and the arts. She approaches one of nature's greatest dichotomies in the egg and the nest, and she then transforms it in order to give it artistic value.
The creature behind all this scientific beauty, the bird, is only found in one photo. Purcell's "Great Egret from Ecuador" hangs in between the two main walls of the gallery, without egg or nest. The egret serves as a reminder of the unique nature of birds and their habits and also of the creature to whom we must pay homage for such natural splendor. It embodies science and art, as does the exhibit.
--
Egg and Nest: Photographs by Rosamond Purcell
Through March 15
Harvard Museum of Natural History
26 Oxford St. in Cambridge, MA
617-495-3045
