Anatomical heart clutches

In this strange and challenging time personally and globally, I realized that I have sadly neglected magpie&whiskeyjack. So, I have resolved to make several smaller, simpler posts, since I would prefer to share than to disappear. So, without further ado, I would like to direct your attention to the gorgeous anatomical heart clutch worn by Celeste Wait on last night's Oscar's red carpet.

Celeste Wait in Gucci arrives on the Oscar's 2021 red carpet (photos: Getty Images, via here)

Celeste Wait's outfit and clutch are from the Gucci Fall 2021 Aria Collection. The collection also includes a silver and yellow coloured rhinestone versions of the clutch and a turquoise enamel version with text.

Detail of Gucci Fall 2021 clutch, with silver anatomical heart (image by Gucci via Vogue.com)

Detail of Gucci Fall 2021 clutch, with yellow anatomical heart (image by Gucci via luxurylanches.com)

Detail of Gucci Fall 2021 clutch, with anatomical heart in red, violet, blue and gold (image by Gucci via Vogue.com)

 

 

Detail of Gucci Fall 2021 clutch, with anatomical heart in turquoise with text "SAVOY club" in black (image by Gucci via Vogue.com)

 

According to NSS maganize these are not merely clutches, but minaudières, a sort of small rigid container made of soft material origianlly used as makeup cases. So, I am amused to note these are in fact, heart-shaped boxes, which in the Nirvana song was an allusion to another organ.

Ernst Haeckel & Artforms in Nature

Ernst Haeckel, linocut on kozo, 30.5 cm by 30.5 cm, 2011, by Ele Willoughby

Ernst Haeckel's Artforms in Naure, 1904 can be viewed here

Biologist, naturalist, and scientific illustrator par excellence Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (February 16, 1834 – August 9, 1919), and his beautiful and well-known Artforms in Nature can be credited for the fact that people who are not say, marine microbiologists or geostratigraphers or their colleagues, know and are inspired by the extraordinary forms of radiolarians (as I've written about before), or are familiar with any number of exotic marine invertebrates.  Here we have the man himself, surrounded by several of the creatures he depicted. Clockwise from the top we have: rugosa, a foraminifer (or foram), a tubularid hydroid, homo sapiens (Ernst Haeckel), a dinoflagelate, and a sea slug or nudibranch. His was a form of descriptive science, where his art, his depictions of lifeforms was science, or his science was art. As such, he can be seen as a sort of culmination of centuries of work of his predecessors, gathering their cabinets of curiosity, their wunderkammer of creatures, driven almost as much by aesthetics as by exploration of the biosphere. You can trace this sort of scientific collecting from luminaries of the scientific revolution like Robert Hooke who gathered microscopic wunderkammer, and many others throughout the age of exploration, who travelled the world gathering specimen through to the Victorians whose obsession with cabinets of curiosity has been explained as an indication in fact of a morbid fear of death (in Olalquiaga's The Artificial Kingdom: A Treasury Of The Kitsch Experience).

His particular presentation of life*, which highlights the inherent patterns and beauty, has long been an influence on artists (myself included). Consider the rococco jellyfish chandeliers of Timothy Horn, a hommage to Haeckel's drawings. Haeckel's influence can also be seen in the surreal and imaginary zoological and botanical style drawings of Katie Scott, or the entire otherworldly visual encyclopedia in an alien language Codex Seraphinianus by Luigi Serafini. You can compare his drawings with the glass sculptures of the near contemporary Blaschka father and son, who created fabulous menageries filled with marine invertebrates as well as other creatures and botanicals and whose work likewise straddles art and science and their fertile intersection. His work lead to the incorporation of forms from nature finding their way into everything from furniture to architecture, as well as the more obvious influence on fine art and scientific illustration.

*Sadly, his deep appreciation of life in its many forms did not translate into an enlightened view of his own species. While he did make contributions to evolutionary biology, and was a great popularizer of Darwin's work in Germany, he also used a confused hodgepodge of Darwinian and Lamarkian ideas and far more speculation than a we would consider reasonable in a modern scientific sense. Some of his discredited scientific ideas were in vogue during his lifetime, and his errors should be considered within context. Most disappointing however, were his wrong-headed and repugnant social Darwinist ideas about race and his evolutionary racism which have been linked to the rise of Fascism. I've long enjoyed his extraordinary art/science and was saddened to read that he harboured such ideas, but I think it's important to avoid lionizing people, for instance for their artistic or scientific ideas, and to acknowledge their failings as well as achievements. I can admire his scientific illustration and tireless zoological investigations but still repudiate his ideas about human evolution.

Fibre Art Specimens

Sometimes the artifacts of science are beautiful in and of themselves. This is of course true of most biological specimens, as lifeforms themselves are beautiful. Thus you do see them recreated in various media. Today I bring you textile art specimens. Be sure to also see previous magpie & whiskeyjack posts Naturalia & Mirabilia on the art of Lyndie Dourthe, Barnacles which includes crocheted marine creatures like the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, Felt & Food Geology about the photos of Eszter Burghardt, and Doily Science on Lisa Solomon's anatomical and chemical doilies.

Laura Splan's microbial doilies "explores the 'domestication' of microbial and biomedical imagery. Many recent events, epidemics, and commercial products have brought this imagery into our living rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms," by employing this old-fashioned, domestic medium.

all by Laura Splan, 2004
freestanding computerized machine embroidered lace mounted on velvet
16.75H x 16.75W inches each (framed dimensions)
(via she walks softly)

Her 2002 'Vigilant' show also featured hand latch-hooked yarn on stretched latch-hook canvas images of petri dishes of various microbes.

Laura Splan, Vigilant, 2002, hand latch-hooked yarn on stretched latch-hook canvas, 120H x 204W inches (installation dimensions variable)

I've mentioned Australian artist Helle Jorgensen previously (for her crocheted Barnacles) but her plastic crochet sea creatures are worth exploring again.

Helle Jorgensen, 'Diploria'

Helle Jorgensen, 'Medusa'

Helle Jorgensen, 'The Retail Reef'

Laura Katherine McMillan's fibre art Petri dishes are quite lovely.

Laura Katherine McMillan, Cell series

Jessica Polka has made some wonderful fibre art specimens, from sea creatures to mushrooms (and she sells crochet patterns through her Etsy shop, which she describes as a wunderkammer, much to my delight).

Jessica Polka, chiton anatomy

Jessica Polka, mollusk anatomy

Jessica Polka, scaphopod anatomy

(you should also check out her laser-cut Turing patterns and her blog in general!)

Aubrey Longley-Cook's embroidered animals include their skeletons. See more on his blog spool spectrum.

Aubrey Longley-Cook

Amongst other work, Andrea V. Uravitch has made small insects and bugs from embroidered and sewn fabric and wire.

Andrea V. Uravitch

Andrea V. Uravitch


Hiné Mizushima makes wonderful and whimsical needle felted sculptures, including a variety of biological specimen.

Hiné Mizushima, Giant Daphnia brooches

Hiné Mizushima

Anatomical Decor

I've noticed a trend of artists and designers employing human anatomy in things we use to decorate our homes: wallpaper, textiles and so forth. Consider, for instance, Wallpaper Number One (2006) by Shannon Wright, which is a stylized version of... our uninary tract, of all things.

↬trendhunter

Or the Anatomical wallpaper by Kari Modén for Swedish pharmasy Vårdapoteket:

↬ PopTech

Gabriel Valdivieso Interior Design worked with artist Jonny Macali, to create a paper that features flamingos, human bodies and flowers in this custom wallpaper:

ᔥ design sponge

Or consider the 'Soft Cover' quilt by Katrin Rodegast:

"Soft Cover” (200 x 250 cm). Contemporary quilt; printed cotton, appliqués and fleece filling. It is coated with a pattern of 270 illustrations observing the social reality. "

Or the 'Flow' chairs are from AK-LH, which depict the circulatory system:

↬ Apartment Therapy

Etsy seller and printmaker Sara Selepouchin of girlscantell delights in diagrams, including one of heart, she's printed on tea towels:

For more, check out the blog Street Anatomy which has an entire 'Interior Design' section.