Institute of Intimate Museums

Pasta boxes become microscopic museums

A collection of dioramas by artist Kenji Sugiyama, “Institute of Intimate Museums” proved to be one of the most engaging displays at Scope Basel 2012. Spanning the artist’s output from 1999 to 2008, the works serve as clever variations on traditional diorama art—cramped consumer boxes containing lilliputian scenes of museum-goers standing in halls of shrunken art. Within the setting of the fair, Sugiyama’s museums forced …

Alessandro Brighetti Schizophrenia

A macabre demonstration in the electromagnetic manipulation of oil-based ferrofluids

Raised in a family of doctors and formally educated as a painter, Alessandro Brighetti finds himself and his work helplessly drawn towards the fields of arts and science. Initially channeling this keen interest through works reminiscent of petri dish experiments and cellular dissections, Brighetti’s work has since evolved to include a range of chemically enhanced sculptures. On a recent visit to Switzerland’s Scope Basel 2012 …

The Breathless Zoo

The eccentric art of taxidermy explored in a new book

Taxidermy has risen in the contemporary design scene over recent years, mounted on the walls of shops and restaurants as well as defining a certain throwback aesthetic in modern homes. The venerable form of animal preservation marries actual scientific study with an undeniably eccentric sensibility that has endured across generations, though not everyone decorating with a bust might be fully versed in the origins of …