A night at the museum

Cubist painter Georges Braque once said that art was meant to disturb us, science to reassure us.

But Minneapolis artist Matthew Bakkom thinks art and science are more friends than enemies, and has blended them perfectly at the Bell Museum. Also surreally and absurdly.

For the first in a series of Thursday night socials at the natural history museum on the University of Minnesota campus, Bakkom paired snippets of dialogue from a classic film with some of the Bell's habitat dioramas. Weird, sure, but the playful ploy was also a clever way to spark renewed appreciation for these still-life animal scenes, the fusty great-grandparents of modern museums' interactive exhibits and sophisticated animation.

Just for the night, lines from the script of the 1947 Robert Mitchum movie "Out of the Past" were posted on illuminated signs next to the dioramas installed along darkened hallways, lending a noir-ish effect with both words and ambience.

"Adding quick, cutting repartee seemed like a fun way to bring drama to a tight environment," Bakkom said. "I call it a didactic intervention -- make a few little adjustments, and they really come to life."

Indeed. If you used your imagination, walking from one scene to the next, munching on the popcorn provided, felt like watching a trailer for "Night at the Museum 3: When Animals Talk Tough."

"You weren't ever married before, were you?" a male big-horned mountain sheep asked a female lounging on a crag. "Not that I can remember," she said, without breaking her far-off gaze.

Viewer takeaway: That is one world-weary lady.

"Is there a way to win?" wondered a wide-eyed white-tailed deer. "There is a way to lose more slowly," replied its older, wiser chum.

Takeaway: How fatalistic -- must be hunting season.

"You're no good and neither am I," one migrating goose told another. "That's why we deserve each other."

Takeaway: Those two snowbirds are running from more than the weather.

"Dioramas might seem obsolete, but they actually have rich narratives behind them," he said. "Like anything else, who you're looking at it with affects how you see it."

In other words, perfect for a combo art installation/social event. The Bell doesn't have the budget or high-tech trappings of larger, better-known institutions. Its expansion plans are on hold for lack of funding. But this little museum does have more than 4 million specimens, photos and vintage documentary films, along with a history of coming up with creative ways to attract visitors.

Like the debut event featuring Bakkom's art, three more socials to be held over the rest of this school year will include music and short presentations on related topics given by scientists, in a come-and-go atmosphere (and a beer and wine cart).

A 2008 Bush Fellow, Bakkom has had work shown at Walker Art Center and museums in New York and Paris. The night of the social, he also set a slide show about explorer and botanist Ned Huff to live music.

He sees the quest of discovery as the greatest commonality between art and science. "As an artist working in a science museum you have a context of stability and order, but you add your own creative flourish, one that gives the audience the sense that they've found something, too."

Staring so long at dioramas makes you wonder: "Why don't they rot or crumble into dust after 50 years or so?"

For the answer to that, we turn to Don Luce, curator of exhibits for the past 32 years: durable beeswax and an airtight, dry environment. Luce's belief that dioramas still have a place in the modern museum is based on more than nostalgic fondness.

"They've been considered static and old-fashioned since the 1960s," he said. "They're also criticized for giving a false, nuclear-family impression of animals. But most of ours are better at getting the biology right. They're very accurate reproductions. And watching kids spot the little hidden chipmunk or bird warms my heart. Kids so often don't see the things they want to on actual nature walks because they're too loud and don't know how to look."

The next Bell Museum Social will be held Dec. 2, when U of M Assistant Art Prof. Ali Momeni will find another way of bringing the dioramas to life -- adding light and sound to turn them into "otherworldly spaces."

Those stuffed raccoons, moose and bears had better rest up. They haven't seen this much excitement since they were first installed.

Kristin Tillotson • 612-673-7046