WQED Cultural Calendar

New York-based artist Amie Siegel (b. 1974 in Chicago, IL) debuts a new work that stems from her research into the collections and displays of Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Siegel’s new film installation traces how objects or animals become displaced from their context to arrive at the museum. Contesting inherited practices of knowledge extraction and conventions of display across fields of art, ethnography, and natural history, Siegel’s prescient work questions notions of value, museology, and material culture at a time when the raison d’être of the museum is itself under scrutiny. This newly commissioned film installation builds on an existing relationship between the artist and the museum; her video Fetish (2016) was acquired by Carnegie Museum of Art in 2016.

Amie Siegel is organized by Liz Park, Richard Armstrong Curator of Contemporary Art with Cynthia Stucki, curatorial assistant for contemporary art and photography.