For Immediate Release For More Information Contact:

Lisa Z. Meritz (267-229-3428) or lisa@meritz.com

TEMPUS FUGIT—Time Flies An Exhibition Inviting Reflection on Time

Contemporary Art by Antonia Contro and Historic Treasures from the American Philosophical Society Collections

Philadelphia, PA, March 5, 2012… Step into the new exhibition of the American Philosophical Society (APS) Museum,

Tempus Fugit, which debuts on April 13th

, and you’ll immediately be immersed in a sensory exploration of time. From

between two walls configured as an open book, you’ll see a cloud changing shape almost imperceptibly in a video

projected on the back wall or “spine” of the book. Playing in the background, you’ll hear the incessant turning of pages

in a sound installation that alludes to time’s passage. In the words of nationally recognized contemporary artist Antonia Contro, who developed the concept for the show’s

design, the experience “is like falling through the rabbit hole.” Through the sound, the visual elements, and the

carefully selected APS historic treasures, the exhibition invites viewers to reflect on time in new ways.

Explaining why she chose Contro, APS Museum Founding Director and Curator Sue Ann Prince says, “After seeing the

book published for her show at the Newberry Library, I was attracted to the poetry of her work and realized she would

be a perfect fit for our institution and for providing a new, intriguing take on the APS Collections.”

In addition to its sound installation and videos, Tempus Fugit features Contro’s drawings, paintings and collages, all

judiciously juxtaposed to books, manuscripts, and historic treasures from the rich and eclectic materials in the APS

Museum and Library. Through Contro’s poetic pairings, the observer can feel the flight of time as it leaves its mark on

the people and objects it touches, from the historically significant to the rare and the curious.

Historical objects in the show, extending from the 16th

through the 20th

century, include a timeline by chemist Joseph

Priestley—the first-ever graphically laid out timeline; Peter Apian’s Cosmographia, a popular 16th

century astronomy

textbook; a first American edition of Darwin’s The Origin of Species; and chromolithograph plates from the 1910

International Cloud Atlas that established the current naming system for clouds. Rare objects include a tube for

producing static electricity made according to Benjamin Franklin’s instructions, and a notebook of astronomical

observations by Cromwell Varley, who with William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) operated the first transatlantic telegraph

cable. Curious objects, which remain mysterious because there is no information about them, include a coiled wire and

pieces of shattered glass from the lab of Elihu Thomson (one of General Electric’s founders), and a 19th

century gold

nugget from an unknown collector.

Contro names each exhibition case after a musical term that elucidates its meaning. In a case named “adagio (slow

movement),” she pairs her “Le Alpi,” a clay rendering of a Swiss Alps range embedded in a woman’s old-fashioned

shoe, with a model of Mont Blanc made by Ferdinand Hassler, the first superintendent of the U.S. Coastal Survey.

Hassler marked time by documenting the topography of the Alps; Contro does so with a shoe that implies walking.

In the “aeon (eternal time)” case, a late medieval illuminated Book of Hours, an unusual item for the APS collections,

graphically documents the seasons and includes prayers and devotions specific to holy days throughout the year.

Paired with Müller’s book, viewers will see Contro’s video of a book’s pages endlessly turning—a reference to the

turning of a page for each holy day in the Book of Hours. Simultaneously, in her sound installation, viewers will hear the

sound of pages turning. Together the video and the sound piece provide a meditation on the aural and tactile

experience of reading a real book, an activity quickly fading as we increasingly turn to digital media.

It’s no surprise that the book, both in its form and content, is such an important theme in Contro’s work. She begins

every piece of art as a drawing in a bound book. “These books are my laboratories,” says Contro, whose work has been

featured in one-person exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center (2011), the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (2007),

the Newberry Library (2006) and The Museum of Contemporary Photography (2002). Contro was awarded a CAAP

grant (2010), an Illinois Art Council Fellowship (2007), and a Rockefeller Fellowship (2002). The Newberry Library

published her book, Closed/Open, in 2006.

Nichole Canuso Dance Company (NCDC) Interprets Tempus Fugit Theme

As a response to the exhibition, in the fall, the Nichole Canuso Dance Company (NCDC) will perform a series of duets on

selected Fridays from September through December. Just before sunset, two dancers will meet in the APS Jefferson

Garden across from the Museum, each wielding a camera and filming their own experience from the inside of the

dance. The result—two distinct versions of the same dance—will be projected in the Museum after each live

performance. The accumulating videos will capture the changing seasons and the passage of time. NCDC creates

virtuosic and engaging dance-based works that explore the complexity of human experience. Choreographer Nichole

Cansuo blends full-bodied dance technique and idiosyncratic gesture to make dance that connects with audiences in a

way that is human, intimate, and expressive.

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Information

Tempus Fugit April 13-December 30, 2012 American Philosophical Society (APS) Museum 104 S. Fifth Street/Philadelphia, PA 19106 (215) 440-3440 www.apsmuseum.org

Exhibition Hours: Wed. - Sun. 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. (April 13 to Labor Day) Thurs. - Sun. 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. (Labor Day to Dec. 30) Extended hours June 1-10 / Closed holidays $1 donation requested Dance Hours: Fall 2012 (on Fridays - dates TBA)

About the APS Museum The American Philosophical Society (APS) Museum, located next door to Independence Hall in Philadelphia’s historic district, hosts exhibitions that explore history, art, and science in creative and thought-provoking ways. In conjunction with each exhibition, the museum commissions innovative works by visual artists, musicians, poets, performers, dancers, and others. These original works interpret the themes and objects on view, linking them to relevant issues today. What’s “Philosophical” about the APS Museum? In 1743, when Benjamin Franklin and his friends decided to establish the American Philosophical Society (APS), they studied the natural world and called themselves natural philosophers. Now we’d call them scientists. But the word “philosophical” stuck. For more than 270 years the APS has gathered and preserved a rich collection that traces American history and science from the Founding Fathers to the computer age. The collection includes scientific specimens and instruments, patent models, portraits, maps, art works, rare books, and some eleven million manuscripts.

For downloadable digital images (see below), please contact Lisa Meritz, lisa@meritz.com, 267-229-3428. Bios of Antonia Contro and Nichole Canuso are available at www.apsmuseum.org/press (Artist Antonia Contro, Choreographer Nichole Canuso and APS Museum Director Sue Ann Prince are available for interviews on request.)

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Antonia Contro, Le Alpi, 2011, clay and wooden shoe

Antonia Contro, Ala, 2012, video of butterfly wing

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Ballistic Research Laboratories, Ballistic Research Laboratories’ Electronic Scientific Computer. Aberdeen, Md., ca. 1961. American Philosophical Society

Invitation to the funeral of Charles Darwin, 1882. American Philosophical Society

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Richard Proctor, Transit of Venus, published by R. Worthington and Co., New York, 1875. American Philosophical Society

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Maker unknown, Book of Hours, probably late 15th

century. Gift of Detmar Basse Müller, May 1806. American Philosophical Society

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Photographer unknown, Lenticular cloud photographed in Brazil, gelatin silver print, ca. 1968. American Philosophical Society

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