ThoughtGallery.org > Art & Science Discussion Panel | Fossils: An Imperfect Messenger

Art & Science Discussion Panel | Fossils: An Imperfect Messenger

Moderator: Frank Ippolito
Panelists: Carl Mehling, Nina Kuo & Lorin Roser,  Shelley Haven

Time travelers from an alien world, fossils have passed through hell and back again to arrive into our hands an imperfect messenger. Whether they are shells emerging from an ancient sandstone shore, insects frozen within hardened amber, minute impressions of leaf remains sitting delicately in silt-turned-cement, or the bones of massive beasts weathering out of a desert highway cut, fossils survive improbably and imperfectly to tell stories both of their past and their tortured journey to the present. While it is the role of science to teach us what we can know, it is the role of the arts to shine a light onto what we do not — or cannot — fully define. How does overlap and tension between these disciplines help us interpret these fragmented, strange clues from a strange land? Filling in the blanks, we have alternately pictured these creatures as reptilian monsters or as feathered angels on the wing — as mindless, man-eating beasts or as coddling mothers tending to their hatchlings. What does our impulses towards such visualizations tell us about these messengers, ourselves, and our collective past?

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FRANK IPPOLITO is a multi-disciplinary artist who worked as a staff illustrator in the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History for 30 odd years. His award winning illustrations have been commissioned by Scientific American, NYT/Science Times, U.S.G.S., and Audubon Society. Mr. Ippolito’s artwork hangs on permanent exhibit at AMNH and The National Zoo. Also hanging in the Paleo halls of AMNH is the near complete skeleton of Notharctus tenebrosus, a primate from the early Eocene, which he discovered weathering out of a Wyoming hillside.

CARL MEHLING has been at the American Museum of Natural History since 1990 and is currently a Senior Museum Specialist taking care of the world’s largest collection of dinosaur fossils along with early synapsids and tetrapods, pterosaurs, crocodiles, turtles and marine reptiles. He is interested in all aspects of paleontology, especially the fringe areas that normally get little attention, including bizarre modes of fossil preservation, anomalous discoveries, and oddities within the history of paleontology.

LORIN ROSER is a multimedia artist focused on digital simulations and algorithmic generatrices, collaborated with Charlie Morrow, Stelarc, Raphael Mostel, Fred Wilson, Fred Ho, Bob Holman, Arleen Schloss, etc. all pioneers who had many projects that help shape multicultural arts-Animator, Architect -Studied w/ Ken Frampton, Emilio Ambasz, Yoshio Taniguchi and Craig Hodgetts.

NINA KUO is a photographer, painter, sculptor and video artist who has shown at the New Museum, P.S. 1,Artist Space, Brooklyn Museum, Newark Museum, Flushing Town Hall, Museum of Chinese in America, En Foco, Creative Time’s Art in the Anchorage, Pierogi, Central Booking, Andre Zarre Gallery, 456 Gallery, CMG Gallery, Clocktower Gallery, Camerawork Gallery and Super Deluxe in Tokyo. Her work ranges from cross-temporal cultural vignettes to complex abstract shapes and forms.

SHELLEY HAVEN is a painter/printmaker inspired by the natural and cultural landscape. Transformations brought by time’s passage motivate her practice. Her work is in the Library of Congress, MOMA; NYC Public Library Rare Books, Prints, and Periodicals; Stedelijk Museum; University of Iowa Library Rare Books; NYU, Pfizer and AIG collections. Awards include Puffin Foundation and Manhattan Community Arts Fund grants; residency fellowships at Fundacion Valparaiso, Spain; Anderson Center, and the Millay Colony.











When: Fri., Mar. 2, 2018 at 6:30 pm
Where: Central Booking
21 Ludlow St.
347-731-6559
Price: $5
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Moderator: Frank Ippolito
Panelists: Carl Mehling, Nina Kuo & Lorin Roser,  Shelley Haven

Time travelers from an alien world, fossils have passed through hell and back again to arrive into our hands an imperfect messenger. Whether they are shells emerging from an ancient sandstone shore, insects frozen within hardened amber, minute impressions of leaf remains sitting delicately in silt-turned-cement, or the bones of massive beasts weathering out of a desert highway cut, fossils survive improbably and imperfectly to tell stories both of their past and their tortured journey to the present. While it is the role of science to teach us what we can know, it is the role of the arts to shine a light onto what we do not — or cannot — fully define. How does overlap and tension between these disciplines help us interpret these fragmented, strange clues from a strange land? Filling in the blanks, we have alternately pictured these creatures as reptilian monsters or as feathered angels on the wing — as mindless, man-eating beasts or as coddling mothers tending to their hatchlings. What does our impulses towards such visualizations tell us about these messengers, ourselves, and our collective past?

_________________________________

FRANK IPPOLITO is a multi-disciplinary artist who worked as a staff illustrator in the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History for 30 odd years. His award winning illustrations have been commissioned by Scientific American, NYT/Science Times, U.S.G.S., and Audubon Society. Mr. Ippolito’s artwork hangs on permanent exhibit at AMNH and The National Zoo. Also hanging in the Paleo halls of AMNH is the near complete skeleton of Notharctus tenebrosus, a primate from the early Eocene, which he discovered weathering out of a Wyoming hillside.

CARL MEHLING has been at the American Museum of Natural History since 1990 and is currently a Senior Museum Specialist taking care of the world’s largest collection of dinosaur fossils along with early synapsids and tetrapods, pterosaurs, crocodiles, turtles and marine reptiles. He is interested in all aspects of paleontology, especially the fringe areas that normally get little attention, including bizarre modes of fossil preservation, anomalous discoveries, and oddities within the history of paleontology.

LORIN ROSER is a multimedia artist focused on digital simulations and algorithmic generatrices, collaborated with Charlie Morrow, Stelarc, Raphael Mostel, Fred Wilson, Fred Ho, Bob Holman, Arleen Schloss, etc. all pioneers who had many projects that help shape multicultural arts-Animator, Architect -Studied w/ Ken Frampton, Emilio Ambasz, Yoshio Taniguchi and Craig Hodgetts.

NINA KUO is a photographer, painter, sculptor and video artist who has shown at the New Museum, P.S. 1,Artist Space, Brooklyn Museum, Newark Museum, Flushing Town Hall, Museum of Chinese in America, En Foco, Creative Time’s Art in the Anchorage, Pierogi, Central Booking, Andre Zarre Gallery, 456 Gallery, CMG Gallery, Clocktower Gallery, Camerawork Gallery and Super Deluxe in Tokyo. Her work ranges from cross-temporal cultural vignettes to complex abstract shapes and forms.

SHELLEY HAVEN is a painter/printmaker inspired by the natural and cultural landscape. Transformations brought by time’s passage motivate her practice. Her work is in the Library of Congress, MOMA; NYC Public Library Rare Books, Prints, and Periodicals; Stedelijk Museum; University of Iowa Library Rare Books; NYU, Pfizer and AIG collections. Awards include Puffin Foundation and Manhattan Community Arts Fund grants; residency fellowships at Fundacion Valparaiso, Spain; Anderson Center, and the Millay Colony.

Buy tickets/get more info now