(More photos below)
Billed as an evening of tall tales, history and tasty treats, the Vancouver Maritime Museum’s upcoming Skin & Bone: Salty Sailor Tales event on July 18, 2013, is a decidedly adults-only affair. Not only will guests have the opportunity to peruse some of the more risqué pieces left out of the museum’s current Tattoos & Scrimshaw exhibit, they’ll hear Maritime Museum curator Patricia Owen, tattoo artist Chris Hold, photographer Kathryn Mussallem and Charles H. Scott Gallery curator Cate Rimmer discuss erotic imagery and taboo concepts found in both art forms. For added oomph, the evening is sponsored by Sailor Jerry’s rum, which has been responsible for its share of impulsive tattoos over the years.
“It’s definitely a fun night with a bit of cheek to it,” Owen says. “We’ll have a bit of alcohol, some randy talk, so it’s going to be an environment definitely meant for the adults.”
Besides giving the family-friendly venue a chance to cut loose for a night, the event is also a cheeky response to the recent media tsunami surrounding the normally placid museum, which is housed in a mid-century A-frame located at 1905 Ogden Ave., not far from the planetarium.
Early this year, the modest West Side museum launched Tattoo & Scrimshaw: The Art of the Sailor, featuring examples of maritime tattoo art and scrimshaw — etchings and engravings done on whale teeth and bone — some depicting scenes of a sexual nature, particularly one piece called “A Whaler’s Hope of the First Night Ashore.” Despite a sign next to the display warning “Hide Your Eyes! These pieces of scrimshaw are not intended for children,” a Langley school teacher and mother of two young boys complained to the museum before taking to the Internet and Yelp to warn the public of the “appalling images” and “whale porn” lurking within the exhibit. News of the “whale porn” controversy rippled through local and international media outlets before flopping on the desk of The Colbert Report, causing the satirical TV host to break character and crack a smile as he addressed the many dangers of “harpoon-tang.” Most recently the comedy-generating comments made their way to the popular YouTube video series Real Actors Read Yelp, and featured actress Jessica Blank (Made in Jersey, Rescue Me, One Life to Live) delivering an impassioned soap opera worthy reading of the online complaint.
“We’ve all been shocked about the media attention — we weren’t expecting it in the least,” says Owen who notes that attendance to the museum tripled during the first month of the exhibit. “It just kind of exploded. And every time we think we’ve hit the peak, there’s another level, and I think The Colbert Report was our climax.”
Owen, who clearly enjoys the opportunity to speak in double entendres, says the museum contacted the complainant immediately and has been proactive in addressing her concerns, although it’s been the only negative feedback they’ve received to date.
After Tattoo & Scrimshaw runs its course and pulls up anchor in October, the museum’s next exhibit will explore the particularly unsexy maritime topic of The Komagata Maru incident, followed possibly by an exhibit on the history of the swimsuit.
“As a curator I always want to go off the last success and build from it,” Owen says. “We look at ourselves as being the underdog. A lot of people walk by, or only visit us once and don’t come back. Our challenge is how to re-engage these people and try to get in a new audience, a younger audience who will come back and want to see what we’ll do next.”
For the time being, Owen suspects the storm of controversy and media attention over the Tattoos & Scrimshaw exhibit has all but died down — although public reaction, much like the ocean, is always hard to predict.
“We’ve just got to figure out what will be next,” Owen says. “Personally, I’m shooting for Letterman.”
(Story originally published July 15, 2013).
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