Exhibition: Alternate Encyclopedia by Sue Johnson September 15, 2005

Two exhibitions by artist Sue Johnson will open on Friday, September 16, at Carleton College. The main exhibition, titled ?The Alternate Encyclopedia,? opens at the college?s Art Gallery. As part of the opening festivities, the artist will give a lecture titled ?New Natural Histories: peas, penguins and other curious natures? at 7:30 p.m. in Boliou Hall, Room 104. A reception will follow in the Gallery at 8:30 p.m. A smaller satellite exhibition, titled ?Alternate Encyclopedia Annex: Penguiniana? will open the same day at Gould Library. The exhibitions and opening events are free and open to the public.

Both exhibitions bring together Johnson?s own prints, drawings and paintings along with ?found? objects from the college collections and elsewhere.

?The Alternate Encyclopedia? is an on-going project to present fanciful two-dimensional illustrations with real objects in contexts illuminating the human impulse in order to ?capture, collect, name, tame, dominate and re-create nature.? Johnson?s paintings and prints are meant to invoke images of microscopic specimens and botanical and zoological illustrations. Visitors are invited to imagine the exhibition as a slightly out-of-date natural history museum with themed ?cabinets of curiosity,? organized by quirky ?chapters,? which mimic science books written for popular audiences.

Johnson?s installation playfully mixes science and science fiction, popular culture and high culture, discredited scientific theories and innovative research agendas. ?The idea to create a fully fictitious encyclopedia came to me when I realized that I could entertain my desire for the fantastic while maintaining my interest in the pursuit of objective truth,? says Johnson.

The exhibition has become, in Johnson?s words, ?an ever-expanding and shifting universe.? It absorbs local materials as the exhibition travels to galleries and museums. In preparation for the fall exhibition at Carleton, the artist visited the college last spring and searched out likely specimens from college collections. The biology and geology departments yielded ?wondrous specimens and models,? said Johnson.

The college archives and Gould Library special collections, rich in penguins and penguiniana from former Carleton president Lawrence Gould?s research in the Antarctic, inspired the smaller satellite ?Alternate Encyclopedia Annex: Penguiniana? exhibition at the college library. The exhibition is in honor of Gould memorabilia and penguin publications across the spectrum.

Sue Johnson is the Stephen Muller Distinguished Professor of Art at St. Mary?s College of Maryland, where she also serves as chair of the department of art and art history. The University of Minnesota, Duluth?s Tweed Museum of Art organized the main exhibition in 2004. From Northfield, it will travel to the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, Wis., Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and the University of Richmond Art Museums in Virginia.

The ?Alternate Encyclopedia Annex: Penguiniana? exhibition was collaboratively curated at Carleton by Johnson, Director of Exhibitions and Curator of the College Art Collection Laurel Bradley, Curator of Library Art and Exhibitions Margaret Pezalla-Granlund and Art Collection Registrar James Smith.

The ?Alternate Encyclopedia? exhibition will run from September 16 through November 13. The Carleton College Art Gallery is located near First and Winona Streets in the lower level of the Music and Drama Center. It is open daily at noon and closes at 6 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 10 p.m. Thursday-Friday, and 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The Art Gallery has limited disability accessibility. For more information or disability accommodations, call the Art Gallery at (507) 646-4342. Further information also is available on Carleton's Art Gallery Web site at http://www.carleton.edu/campus/gallery/

The satellite exhibition, ?Alternate Encyclopedia Annex: Penguins on Parade / Penguiniana, ? will run from September 16 through October 16. The Carleton College Gould Library is open daily on Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to midnight. For more information and disability accommodations, call Carleton?s library at (507) 646-4260.