Constucting the Space

This is the start of a new blog about THE LYRIC CRANIUM. This is my Wunderkammer, my museum of oddities, my collection of all things morbid and dark. As a visual artist, I plan to use this space as a reference for other artwork; works on paper, film, video and more; and to provide a unique first-hand experience to visitors and invited guests.

The construction of the space began 12 December 2012 just before the start of a four-month sabbatical leave. At first, I needed to build walls to divide the existing space which was originally the waiting room in a medical clinic called THE MURRAY CLINIC. I plan to re-use the aluminum letters from its sign, so the palindrome THE LYRIC CRANIUM was painstakingly worked out.

New wall and wallpaper go up.

After framing and putting up sheet rock (drywall), I pasted up sheets of custom printed wallpaper using a pattern I designed and had printed at Colombia College of the Arts in Chicago by amazing artist and pressman, Clifton Meador. It was slow going but the result is great. It is subtle enough to not be too obvious until one accidentally discovers what the walls are covered with. I assume that the more picture frames I hang on the walls, the more subtle it will be. One pattern seen being installed above was created by layering scans of a 19th C. manuscript Last Will and Testament written on vellum. (see samples below)

Manuscript scanned from a Victorian Last Will and Testament on vellum.

Same pattern as above with added over-script in brown.

Antique Caskets from the early 20th C. photographs.

This last wallpaper sample was made from actual salesman photographs of the caskets in stock at The American Casket Company; photographs that were used to produce their ca. 1920 catalog.

By 08 February 2013, I was already placing pieces from my collection in situ, all the while continuing the construction of auxiliary spaces and display furnishings. More to come in future blog entries.