[BONUS] 379. Mütter's Skull of Brains

Last month I made a special trip to visit my friends at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia's Mütter Museum. Anna, the curator, asked if I could make a new skull for an upcoming project of theirs and of course I said yes, and then suggested that I make it in the museum itself. Since most of the items on display are very fragile I figured I'd be working with display jars or other non-historical materials. However, to my delight they had just acquired a collection of hundreds of beautiful real brain slices encased in acrylic (which had been dubbed "Zombie MRE's")! Since they're very sturdy I was allowed to used them as my material and I was set up in a lovely room that holds the card catalog for their library. Over the course of two days I arranged the slices on two large old library tables and climbed a ladder over and over making sure the image looked right from a single vantage point (where I would eventually take my picture). All told I used 375 slices and a bit of fabric for the eye/nose holes...

While I was there we filmed a few video segments as well...







As always I had a wonderful time with the staff of the museum and can't wait to get back there to do something else! While the piece itself was only temporary and dismantled shortly there are still tons of great stuff to see in the museum (including a few of the original Skull-A-Day pieces on display right next to the gift shop). I highly recommend you visit the Mütter Museum you're ever in Philadelphia, you won't be disappointed.