A lukasa (memory Board) Luba people, DR of Congo. Lukasa are used in oral retelling of history in Luba culture. The master who has skill & knowledge to read the lukasa will use it as mnemonic device, feeling the beads, shells, & pegs to recount history & solve current problems.
Mid 20th century Ceremonial Belt of a Medicine Man from the Fang people of Gabon. The belt includes amulets made from animal bones, ivory and metal and filled leather pouches
Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, assorted chair sculptures made of painted poultry bones, with adhesive and varnish, variable dimensions (photo by Rich Maciejewski)
Burke and Hare Murder Dolls
In the late 1820s, two men in Edinburgh, William Hare and William Burke, killed 16 people, mostly by smothering, and sold their wares to a Dr. Knox at the University.
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Burke and Hare Murder Dolls
Later, a young boy playing in a cave, came across a collection of 17 carved wooden dolls, about the size of a finger, each in its own tiny coffin. The dolls greatly resembled the victims of Burke & Hare.
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Burke and Hare Murder Dolls
DNA tests on the macabre toys against the remains of Burke yielded no results. Only 8 of the 17 are still known to exist, and can be seen at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
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Mary Lieb - Cell floor decorated with torn strips of cloth, patterns ripped out from bed sheets,1894. The Prinzhorn Collection. She was hospitalized in the Heidelberg clinic, diagnosed with “periodic mania”.
Gabriel Orozco - installation at the Guggenheim, 2013. Made up of thousands of items of flotsam and jetsam that the artist gathered at a protected coastal biosphere in Baja California Sur, Mexico, where flows of industrial and commercial waste from across the Pacific Ocean arrive