I manufacture objects that confuse classification and cross  boundaries. Part unicorn horn and part Narwhal tusk, these objects straddle categorical containers. My sculptures attempt to break free from inherited  structures of knowledge and modes of seeing. The boxes and pedestals are akin to these imposed structures, though these traditional structures always fall just short of fulfilling their supposed function; these categorical  containers slowly leak

Toyofuku, Dai

English

Installation view.https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_mfaexhibits/1646/thumbnail.jp

Keck Graduate Institute

Wunderkammer

Scholarship@Claremont

Claremont CollegesScholarship @ ClaremontCGU MFA Theses CGU Student Scholarship4-20-2010WunderkammerDai ToyofukuClaremont Graduate UniversityThis Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the CGU Student Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusionin CGU MFA Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contactscholarship@cuc.claremont.edu.Recommended CitationToyofuku, Dai, "Wunderkammer" (2010). CGU MFA Theses. Paper 31.http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_mfatheses/31 Dai Toyofuku artist statement       In 1551, Konrad Von Gesner, considered to be the father of zoology, believed that unicorns "must exist on earth, or else its horn would not exist."  These horns were prized for their magical, medicinal properties, the most famous being the "horne of Windsor" owned by Queen Elizabeth, purchased at the time for an enormous sum.  By the seventeenth century, Ole Worm, having such a horn in his Museum Wormianum, concluded that it was in actuality a Narwhal (a type of whale) tusk.  Being influenced by both medieval lore and scientific experimentation, Worm poisoned his pets and then fed them ground up Narwhal tusk to see if the "unicorn horn" actually had anti-poison properties.  These tusks, once prized by queens and princes when they were unicorn horns, suddenly lost favor and monetary value.  As for the Narwhal, which we consider to be a mammal, did not become so until the eighteenth century.  As late as 1735 none other than the father of modern taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus, classified whales as fishes in the first edition of Systema Naturae.  Throughout these three centuries, Narwhals and their tusks remained the same, but people's perception and treatment of them drastically changed.        I manufacture objects that confuse classification and cross boundaries.  Part unicorn horn and part Narwhal tusk, these objects straddle categorical containers.  My sculptures attempt to break free from inherited structures of knowledge and modes of seeing. The boxes and pedestals are akin to these imposed structures, though these traditional structures always fall just short of fulfilling their supposed function; these categorical containers slowly leak.           A categorical leak happens when I think about humans' changing relationship with the environment, and with technology.  The topography between human culture and non-human culture is not an agricultural/industrial city on one side and a natural eden or cold robotic dystopia on the other, but rather it is a phantom space.  This phantom space is a perceptual space, ethereal and easily changed as soon as one changes one's perception of it. Though I work in many mediums, both inside and outside the gallery, all my work resides in this phantom space and attempts to make connections between human and non-human cultures.  Lines and surfaces in my work are not meant to delineate, separate, or create boundaries.  Lines and surfaces are ropes that tie things together.  It took over two hundred years for Wunderkammers, which mashed objects of all sorts into the same room, to become modern museums that neatly illustrated Darwinian evolution and scientific classification.  One explanation offered for the rise of these "chambers of wonders" in the sixteenth century is that there was a deluge of strange objects streaming in from the recently discovered New World, and another is the primacy of religion being challenged by a growing secularism.  The response to these newly discovered objects began with wonder and confusion, which in turn led to a questioning of conventional thought, and resulted in perceptual, scientific, and cultural innovation.  Over time, these innovations became ossified into our assumptions about our relationship with the natural world.  My work attempts to reinvigorate the conversation by questioning our conventions.           For more than two centuries, radically different and opposing systems of thinking, categorizing, and presenting objects were practiced, discarded and fought over.  Old mythologies were replaced by new ones when society needed to reinvent itself.  In a time where we are currently surrounded by unknowns, where the world we believed in is coming apart at the seams, perhaps wonder and confusion are the most useful tools we have.  

Claremont Colleges
Scholarship @ Claremont
CGU MFA Theses CGU Student Scholarship
4-20-2010
Wunderkammer
Dai Toyofuku
Claremont Graduate University
This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the CGU Student Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion
in CGU MFA Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact
scholarship@cuc.claremont.edu.
Recommended Citation
Toyofuku, Dai, "Wunderkammer" (2010). CGU MFA Theses. Paper 31.
http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_mfatheses/31
 Dai Toyofuku 
artist statement 
  
    In 1551, Konrad Von Gesner, considered to be the father of zoology, 
believed that unicorns "must exist on earth, or else its horn would not 
exist."  These horns were prized for their magical, medicinal properties, the 
most famous being the "horne of Windsor" owned by Queen Elizabeth, 
purchased at the time for an enormous sum.  By the seventeenth century, 
Ole Worm, having such a horn in his Museum Wormianum, concluded that it 
was in actuality a Narwhal (a type of whale) tusk.  Being influenced by both 
medieval lore and scientific experimentation, Worm poisoned his pets and 
then fed them ground up Narwhal tusk to see if the "unicorn horn" actually 
had anti-poison properties.  These tusks, once prized by queens and princes 
when they were unicorn horns, suddenly lost favor and monetary value.  As 
for the Narwhal, which we consider to be a mammal, did not become so until 
the eighteenth century.  As late as 1735 none other than the father of 
modern taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus, classified whales as fishes in the first 
edition of Systema Naturae.  Throughout these three centuries, Narwhals and 
their tusks remained the same, but people's perception and treatment of 
them drastically changed.       
 I manufacture objects that confuse classification and cross 
boundaries.  Part unicorn horn and part Narwhal tusk, these objects straddle 
categorical containers.  My sculptures attempt to break free from inherited 
structures of knowledge and modes of seeing. The boxes and pedestals are 
akin to these imposed structures, though these traditional structures always 
fall just short of fulfilling their supposed function; these categorical 
containers slowly leak.          
 A categorical leak happens when I think about humans' changing 
relationship with the environment, and with technology.  The topography 
between human culture and non-human culture is not an 
agricultural/industrial city on one side and a natural eden or cold robotic 
dystopia on the other, but rather it is a phantom space.  This phantom space 
is a perceptual space, ethereal and easily changed as soon as one changes 
one's perception of it. Though I work in many mediums, both inside and 
outside the gallery, all my work resides in this phantom space and attempts 
to make connections between human and non-human cultures.  Lines and 
surfaces in my work are not meant to delineate, separate, or create 
boundaries.  Lines and surfaces are ropes that tie things together. 
 It took over two hundred years for Wunderkammers, which mashed 
objects of all sorts into the same room, to become modern museums that 
neatly illustrated Darwinian evolution and scientific classification.  One 
explanation offered for the rise of these "chambers of wonders" in the 
sixteenth century is that there was a deluge of strange objects streaming in 
from the recently discovered New World, and another is the primacy of 
religion being challenged by a growing secularism.  The response to these 
newly discovered objects began with wonder and confusion, which in turn led 
to a questioning of conventional thought, and resulted in perceptual, 
scientific, and cultural innovation.  Over time, these innovations became 
ossified into our assumptions about our relationship with the natural world.  
My work attempts to reinvigorate the conversation by questioning our 
conventions.          
 For more than two centuries, radically different and opposing systems 
of thinking, categorizing, and presenting objects were practiced, discarded 
and fought over.  Old mythologies were replaced by new ones when society 
needed to reinvent itself.  In a time where we are currently surrounded by 
unknowns, where the world we believed in is coming apart at the seams, 
perhaps wonder and confusion are the most useful tools we have. 
 


https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&amp;context=cgu_mfatheses

Wunderkammer

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