Dundarave Cafe: Riitta A.
Petrone, Watercolours, oils and
pastels, Jan. 9-29 Opening
reception Jan. 13, 4:30-6:30
p.m.

Ferry Building Gallery:
Reverenee far Nature. Gils,
photography and mixed media
by K. Crawford Burns, Tom
Omidi, Lee Parks, David
Smith and Peter Tucker. To
Jan. 24. Gallery hours: 1]
a.m. to 5 pam., closed
Mondays. Information: 925-
7266.

The Gallery, Artisan Square,
Bowen Island: Closed to Jan.
15. Cherish the Past — Hope
for the Future, nvurals created
by the residents of Camp
Goodtimes runs Jan. 15-Feb.
>

4a

North Vancouver District
Hall: Mesages, Masks,
Mementos, the pottery of
Heather Cairns and Jonruey of
Colour, the acrylic paintings of
Charlotte Woolley Berry, To
Jan. 27. Exhibits are a pro-
gram of the NV. Community
Arts Council and is open
Mon-Fri, 8:30 a.m.-4:30
pm.

North Vaacouver Museum
and Archives: Towing The
Cuaast: Seaspan and its
Predccessars, 1898-1988. The
story of Seaspan highlighting
stories of deep sea towing and
salvage and the development
of the self'dumping barge.
Wed.-Sun., noon-5 p.m. Free.
Prince Geoge Eventually Len
Norris cartoons. To Jan. 31.
Early Sports. Photographs and
text trace tlie early develop-
ment of soccer, baseball and
lacrosse. To March 28.
Museum open Tues.-Sun.
noon to § p.m. Muscum is
closed Jan. 1.

PGE Railway Station:
Shipyard Snapshots. The
colourful and dramatic covers
of the Wallace Shzpbuilder,
Burrard Drydock’s employees
publication during the Second
World War. Weds.-Sun. noon
to 4 p.m. Foot of Lonsdale.
Presentation House Gallery:
Camera Obseurcd:
Photographic Docusnentation
and the Public Museum. A
look at the intersection of his-
tories of thg public muse-
um/ gallery and the use of
photography as document.
Exhibition eurator Vid
Ingelevics will give a talk prior
to the opening reception Jan.
G at 2 p.m. Weds.-Sun., 12-5
p.m.. Thursday to 9 p.m.
Admission: pay what you can.
Ron Andrews RecCentre:
Pastels and Woadcarvings.
Exhibits by Deep Cave resi-
dents Lorene and Barry
Pitkethly.

Seymour Art Gallery:
Transitions. A solo exhibition
of work by artist Lawrence
Kristmanson. Watercolours,
traditional print making and

See Calendar page V4

Photo Alex Rota

STAFF at The American Museum of Natural History work on a group of flying birds in the Sanford Hail in 1947. The photo is one of the
many startling images on display at Presentation House, Jan. 9 to Feb. 21.

USeum Cameras UnV

Michael Becker

News Editor
michuel@nsnews.com

THE truth of museums, as chronicled
by archival sleuth Vid Ingelevics, is
revealed to be carefully constructed
fiction.

Much contained in Camera Obscured, an
exhibit of 89 photographs plucked from the
archives of public museums in Europe and North
America, is unexpectedly surrealistic, courtesy of
the photographers’ behind-the-scenes point of
view.

‘The Toronto curator’s showing runs at North
Vancouver’s Presentation House Gallery from Jan.
9 to Feb. 21. ,

The many evocative images often surprise with
fantastical juxtapositions.

Irrational incongruity reigns when observing
the manufacturing of objectivity.

We sec serious-looking men in coats hard at it in the role of God’s assistants, busi-
ly assembling the natural world picce by detailed piece.

In one shot it is a pride of lions being assembled. Another photegrapii shows a
life-sized model elephant drawn by horse and crt through a city strect.

There are numerous unintentionally bizarre subjects set within the formal environ-
ment of muscums.

A moment caught by the camera in 1930 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(Museum guards winning shooting team) shows seven men standing in a row. The
central figure stands at a podium with a trophy. He is flanked by six surly men in uni-
form, revolvers symmetrically in hand.

A 1914 shor from The American Museum of Natural History ( Blind children
Studying a hippopotamus) features two boys caressing a life-sized hippo while a young

RAY de Lucia installs models in The American
Museum ef Natural History in 1958.

girl sits on a stool nearby, nuiding a miniature
hippo on her lap.
Ingelevies had a vast resource to choose trom dur-
ing, his six-year search.
Millions of documentary photos exist throughout
the world’s public muscurs. ‘The majority have
never been seen in public. The institutional photo
archive of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
helds approximately 750,000 negatives alone.
Between 1856 and 1960 the standard tool used
by staff photographers in museum photographic
studios was the large-format camera.
Negative sizes ranged from 4” X 5” up to 117 X
14”, some even larger in earlier decades. Many of
the larger format black and white photographs are
amazingly rich in clarity.
Said Presentation House Gallery director and
curator Karen Love, “The large-format cameras
produce these exquisitely detailed images that give
us a wealth of information that is not generally ,-
available through a 35 mm camer.”
Many of us perceive public museums to be ware-
houses of history. Implicit is the notion of objective presentation. We assume artifacts
to be shown without the imprint of contemporary cultural value stamped upon them.
A 1945 photo from The Deutsches Muscum graphicully tells us otherwise.
Exhibition on the construction of Germany’s autobabus shows the muscum as an agent
of public indoctrination — an arm of a political public relations machine. -
Said Love, “One of the things that is revealed in this exhibition, is that what is
presented to us in the museum over time, does change.
“You do see, by looking at the photographs, different ways of presenting cultural
material to the public. It’s very interesting to look at that.” ;
Ingelevics first showed Camera Obscured in 1997 at The Photographers Gallery in
London, He will be at Presentation House in person tomorrow at 2 p.m. to give a
tour and talk on the project.

Photo Alex Rota

TV:14 MUSIC:15 CINEMA:15 ALL-STARS:16 DANCE:19 DINING:20