SAVED BY SCIENCE: photographs by Justine Cooper April 20, 2005

Australian artist, Justine Cooper premieres her recent series of large format photographs and video. Over the course of a year she captured the behind the scenes storage areas of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Using a vintage wood 4x5 camera, Cooper shares rare glimpses into their massive housed collections and reveals a trail of scientific desire that reaches back into the19th century and across the 4 corners of the Earth. Cooper deftly wended her way from basement to attic, peering into thousands of vats, drawers, corners and cupboards along the way to produce this vivid series of photographs and video. Her access was unprecedented as the first and only artist-in-residence at the Museum in its almost 150 year history.