Flip Your Field: Objects from the Collection

For the third installation of the Flip Your Field series, UMMA invites Georgios Skiniotis, Professor of Biological Chemistry at U-M’s Life Sciences Institute and Medical School, to curate an exhibition from the Museum’s collection of three-dimensional objects.

As a scientist, Skiniotis creates three-dimensional models of cellular components by combining their magnified shadows or projections viewed from different perspectives. This type of study inevitably raises questions regarding the cognition of the objects around us—how, in the absence of perspective, are we to read elements like color, contrast variation, and depth of field in the dark outlines of objects? How do we make the cognitive connection between a two-dimensional shadow and the three-dimensional object that casts it? How many two-dimensional projections are needed for us to understand what we are looking at, and at what level of detail?

This exhibition poses such questions by juxtaposing three-dimensional objects from the Museum’s collection with two-dimensional projections created by Skiniotis using a similar process with which he creates models of cellular components. The presentation aims to provide a glimpse of the impressions of the selected the works from varied directions through interplay with their own projections and our minds.

The UMMA Flip Your Field series asks noted University of Michigan faculty members to consider artwork outside their field of specialization in order to guest curate an exhibition using works from UMMA's renowned collection. The UMMA Flip Your Field series is generously supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Images

Georgios Skiniotis, 2014, digitally altered photograph
Peacock, Indonesia, Bali, 20th century, painted wood, UMMA, Gift of Marybelle B. Hanna, 2001/1.366A-D

Georgios Skiniotis, 2014, digitally altered photograph
from left to right:
Horse head, China, 1st – 2nd century CE, earthenware with traces of polychrome paint, UMMA, Museum Purchase for the Paul Leroy Grigaut Memorial Collection, 1969/2.84
Horse torso, China, 1st – 2nd century CE, earthenware with traces of polychrome paint, UMMA, Gift of Ping and Zenobia Lee, UA2005.149
Horse torso, China, 1st – 2nd century CE, earthenware with traces of polychrome paint, UMMA, Gift of Ping and Zenobia Lee, UA2005.150
Horse head, China, 206 BCE – 220 CE, earthenware with traces of polychrome decoration, UMMA, Museum Purchase for the James Marshall Plumer Memorial Collection, 1964/2.80

Georgios Skiniotis, 2014, digitally altered photograph
from left to right:
Auguste Rodin, Dance Movement B, Dance Movement C, Dance Movement E, Dance Movement A, created 1911, cast 1956, bronze, UMMA, Gift of the Kurt Delblanco Trust in Honor of Nicholas Delblanco and partial purchase, 2011/1.72, 2011/1.73, 2011/1.74, 2011/1.71

Georgios Skiniotis, 2014, digitally altered photograph
Auguste Rodin, Dance Movement A, Dance Movement B, Dance Movement C, Dance Movement E, created 1911, cast 1956, bronze, UMMA, Gift of the Kurt Delblanco Trust in Honor of Nicholas Delblanco and partial purchase, 2011/1.71, 2011/1.72, 2011/1.73, 2011/1.74

Georgios Skiniotis, 2014, digitally altered photograph
Standing Figure, Africa, Burkina Faso, Lobi, 20th century, carved wood, UMMA, Gift of David L. Chambers and John G. Crane, 1998/1.143

Images

Timeline

Exhibition Timeline

Exhibition Opens

Exhibition Closes

Feel Informed.