About the Exhibit
David Dempewolf, Justin Matherly, Scott
Rigby, and Leigh Stevens, known for their collaborations as
BaseKamp, join forces in an installation entitled Dirty Deeds
(Re)Done Dirt Cheap, opening December 1, 2001 through February
3, 2002 in the Morris Gallery of the Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts.
The exhibition is part of the Museum's
ongoing Morris Gallery series devoted to contemporary regional
talent.
In the Morris Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy
legend and history collide through the idiosyncratic vision
of four artists who have created a variation on a freak show-a
display of oddities-enshrined in a circus tent. Their installation
features four tableaux, each transforming a myth that the artists
recall from their student years at the Academy into three dimensions.
The display techniques utilized-the diorama, the wax-like figure,
the taxidermic specimen-borrow from institutions that came into
existence in the 19th century such as the wax museum and natural
history museum. Two of the tableaux have particular resonance
with the Pennsylvania Academy as they address deeds-partially
fabricated, partially based on truth-of prominent figures in
the Academy's history: Charles Willson Peale and Thomas Eakins.
The installation underscores how contemporary museum practices
which conflate high and low culture have their roots not only
in Disney, but in 19th century "dime museums" such
as P.T. Barnum's American Museum as well as the earlier museum
of Charles Willson Peale, on which the dime museum was modeled.
Dime museums exhibited fine art, zoological displays (featuring
live and stuffed animals), dioramas, and material culture; living
oddities, including dwarves and conjoined twins; wax tableaux;
and hosted lectures and theatrical productions -- all under
one roof.
Having collaborated together before as BaseKamp,
(the name derived from the former business -- a rock climbing
and outdoor equipment outfitter -- that their current gallery
and workshop occupies), their work explores the boundaries of
collaboration in visual, video, and performance art, often through
an ironic insinuation into and critique of the art world establishment.
All four of the artists have strong connections to the Academy,
having either graduated from the certificate program, or enrolled
in courses.
