Domesticated: Artist’s Exhibition Opening Talk by Amy Stein January 22, 2010

To celebrate the opening of Domesticated: Modern Dioramas of our New Natural History, her new exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, visual artist Amy Stein will talk about her unique process of creating and photographing modern dioramas based upon actual news accounts of encounters between humans and wildlife in rural Pennsylvania.

The exhibit explores the tenuous relationship between humans and animals as human civilization increasingly encroaches upon nature and will be on display at the Harvard Museum of Natural History through April 18, 2010. Informed by actual newspaper accounts and oral histories from residents of the small town of Matamoras in northeastern Pennsylvania, Stein’s photographs are staged scenes, often using taxidermied animals, illustrating real-life encounters between humans and animals. A girl and huge bear stare at each other from opposite sides of a fence surrounding the family pool. Coyotes howl at a street light. Stein’s images, at the same time both surreal and paradoxical, explore the increasingly permeable boundary between the human/built environment and the wild. Stein writes, “We at once seek connection with the mystery and freedom of the natural world, yet we continually strive to tame the wild around us and compulsively control the wild within our own nature."

Elisabeth Werby, Executive Director of the Harvard Museum of Natural History commented. “Stein’s images are vivid, dramatic and sometimes even humorous, yet they invite us to consider – and reconsider—the way we live with other animals.”

Harvard Museum of Natural History: Open 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, except major holidays. Admission: $9.00; seniors and students $7.00; $6.00 ages 3-18; under 3 free. Free for Massachusetts residents Wednesdays, 3-5 p.m. (Sept-May) and every Sunday morning, 9:00 am –noon. For more information on exhibits, classes and events, explore www.hmnh.harvard.edu or call 617-495-3045.

Official Website: http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/press-room/domesticated.html