Natural History

Lori Nix, American, born 1969
Kathleen Gerber, American, born 1967

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2005

Chromogenic color print

Overall: 24 × 80 in. (61 × 203.2 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Ninah and Michael Lynne

2018.37.262

Geography

Place Made: United States, North America

Period

21st century

Object Name

Photograph

Research Area

Photograph

Not on view

Label

Either long abandoned or suddenly struck by a cataclysm, this museum, an elaborate miniature model made by Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber, is a ruin, the remnant of a former civilization. Previously assigned a classification, stuffed, and displayed in a detailed diorama, the animals escape scientific control and magically return to life. This whimsical take on going “back to nature” is tinged with irony, though, as these species, which inhabit remote areas, move into an urban environment.

From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022

GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022

Exhibition History

This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 5–April 18, 2022.

Provenance

Miller Block Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, date unknown; Anonymous gift; given to present collection, 2018.

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