Animal Logic
Richard Barnes , Jonathan Rosen, Susan Yelavich

A buffalo stands horns to head with a man who is calmly vacuuming the snow-covered plains beneath its feet.Ê A herd of plastic-wrapped zebras surrounds a giraffe, while a man on scaffolding above paints them a lovely trompe l'oeil sky. Photographer Richard Barnes has spent more than ten years documenting the way we assemble, contain, and catalog the natural world. Barnes's behind-the-scenes photographs are haunting reminders that there is nothing natural about a natural history museum.

Animal Logic, Barnes's first monograph, collects four related species of his photographic work that touch on themes relevant to science, history, archaeology, and architecture. Through his lens sights and objects normally hidden from public view—half-installed dioramas, partially wrapped specimens, anatomical models, exploded skulls, and taxidermied animals in shipping crates—take on a strange beauty. Barnes peels back layers of artifice to reveal the tangle of artistry, craftsmanship, and curatorial decisions inside every lifelike diorama and meticulously arranged glass case. Animal Logic investigates both the human desire to construct artificial worlds for "the wild" and the haunting and poignant worlds the real wild constructs. Barnes's camera freezes migrating starlings to reveal the visual poetry hidden inside their dense formations. His extraordinary photographs of birds' nests constructed from detritus—string, plastic, milkweed, tinsel, hair, dental floss, pine needles—sculpturally embody our often complicated relationship with nature. Animal Logic presents more than 120 of Barnes's photographs and includes essaysÊby Jonathan Rosen of the New York Times and curator Susan Yelavich, which explore the themes that emerge from Barnes's unique body of work.


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Richard Barnes's photographs are in numerous public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was a recipient of the Rome Prize in 2005.
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Editorial Reviews

The Best Books of 2009, Photo-Eye Magazine:
"A buffalo stands horns to head with a man who is calmly vacuuming the snow-covered plains beneath its feet. A herd of plastic-wrapped zebras surrounds a giraffe, while a man on scaffolding above paints them a lovely trompe l'oeil sky. Photographer Richard Barnes has spent more than ten years documenting the way we assemble, contain, and catalog the natural world. Barnes's behind-the-scenes photographs are haunting reminders that there is nothing natural about a natural history museum.Animal Logic, Barnes's first monograph, collects four related species of his photographic work that touch on themes relevant to science, history, archaeology, and architecture. Through his lens, sights and objects normally hidden from public viewhalf-installed dioramas, partially wrapped specimens, anatomical models, exploded skulls, and taxidermied animals in shipping cratestake on a strange beauty. Barnes peels back layers of artifice to reveal the tangle of artistry, craftsmanship, and curatorial decisions inside every lifelike diorama and meticulously arranged glass case. Animal Logic investigates both the human desire to construct artificial worlds for the wild and the haunting and poignant worlds the real wild constructs. Barnes's camera freezes migrating starlings to reveal the visual poetry hidden inside their dense formations. His extraordinary photographs of birds' nests constructed from detritusstring, plastic, milkweed, tinsel, hair, dental floss, pine needlessculpturally embody our often complicated relationship with nature. Animal Logic presents more than 120 of Barnes's photographs and includes essays by Jonathan Rosen of the New York Times and curator Susan Yelavich, which explore the themes that emerge from Barnes's unique body of work." (January 2010)

Lecture and Talks, The Academy of Natural Sciences:
"New York- and San Francisco-based photographer Richard Barnes has a fascination with natural history exhibits. His behind-the-scenes photographs are beautifully haunting reminders that there is nothing natural about a natural history museum. Animal Logic, the recently published mid-career survey of his work, looks critically at both the natural world and the ways in which people attempt to institutionalize and classify nature within museums. Through his lens, sights and objects normally hidden from public viewhalf-installed dioramas, exploded skulls, and taxidermied animals in shipping cratestake on a strange beauty. Animal Logic will be available for purchase at the event."

Art in the 21st Century, The South End News:
"Saturday venues will include 50 galleries all over Metro-Detroit. Saturday from 16 pm, 50 galleries from Dearborn to Grosse Pointe, and Wyandotte to Rochester, will hold events, openings and special exhibitions. At 6 pm Cranbrook Art Museum, in its temporary location at the Cranbrook Institute of Science, will host an opening for Animal Logic: The Work of Richard Barnes. To read the full review on thesouthendnews.com click HERE. " — Nicole Mannino (October 2, 2009)

Cranbrook Institute of Science:
"This multifaceted, mid-career retrospective will showcase work from all of Richard Barness major recent photographic series, includingAnimal Logic, engaging and at times surreal images of dioramas and artifacts from natural history museums, and Refuge, which focuses on the hybrid architecture of urban bird nests that incorporate the detrius of human life." (Fall 2009)

Flock 'n' Roll, The Observers Very Short List:
"Warning: For those of you harboring suspicions that the birds are out to get you, Murmur, the incredible feather-filled photo collection by Richard Barnes, might be as spooky as it is beautiful.Barnes spent two years photographing massive swarms of European starlingsglossy-feathered, black birds with white specklescongregating for their biannual forage in the Roman countryside. The swarms are their protection against predators, and the group undulates through the sky as each bird desperately avoids being left out on the dangerous edge. Though starlings are about the size of a 20-ounce Coke bottle, through Barness perspective, their flocks are more like smudges of dirt on paper. En masse, they take on a surreal, threatening air, but have no fear: Barnes survived these frightening hordes for a few good clicks, and so, no doubt, should you. " (January 11, 2010)

Photo Eye Magazine:
"Altogether, Animal Logic constitutes an argument about what can and can't be shown using our familiar tools, and about the breadth of the field we must encompass in our attempts to gain understanding of our earthly context. All of these players and interpretive strategies have roles within the conceptual construct of Barnes's remarkable book, a profound, apt, and intelligent exploration of real world enigmas and natural science wonders. Click HERE to read the entire review on photoeye.com" — George Slade (December 16, 2009)

The New York Times Book Review:
"Barness first monograph collects his photographs of dioramas, taxidermy, animal skulls, bird migrations and nests. He explores both humans artificial constructions of the wild and the true wilds shaping of its own environment." — Stephan Burt (April 25, 2010)

Cranbook Art Museum Launches Artology: the Fusion of Art and Science, artdaily:
"Animal Logic: Photography and Installation by Richard Barnes, the first Artology exhibition, presents a survey of the work of acclaimed New York and San Francisco-based photographer Richard Barnes. This exhibition showcases work from Barnes most recent major photographic series, most notably Animal Logic, Barnes engaging and, at times, surreal images of dioramas and artifacts from natural history museums. At the center of the exhibition will be the acclaimed project Folded Murmur, in which Barnes collaborated with video artist Alex Schweder and composer Charles Norman Mason to create an integrated photographic, projected-video, and composed sound installation based on their study of starling migration in Rome . The Folded Murmer project allows visitors to enter a space that surrounds them with the sounds and experiences of a starling migration. As a Cranbrook-exclusive component of the exhibition, Barnes incorporates new photographs taken during his exploration of the Institutes collection of over 150,000 objects distributed across nine fields of study. Objects from the Institutes anthropology, ornithology and paleontology collections will be integrated into the Animal Logic experience. Bones and other life science objects will reflect the subjects of many of the photographs. Taxidermy specimens echo diorama subjects featured in Barnes work and also explain and illustrate the process taxidermists use to create these interpretations of the natural world. Birds nests and taxidermy specimens from the Institutes extensive collection add depth to the Folded Murmer installation and offer texture to Refuge, a series of photographs of birds nests which incorporate the cast offs of humans. As a reflection upon Barnes work, the Institute of Science also re-install four of its historic dioramas, removed during construction in the late 1990s, for the duration of Animal Logic. To read the full review on artdaily.org click HERE." (October 9, 2009)

Book By Its Cover:
"The most beautiful book came in the mail yesterday thanks to Princeton Architectural Press. Even upon opening the padded mailing envelope and seeing the cover photograph, I knew this book was going to be special. I immediately recalled my trip to Rome where I stood looking up mesmerized by the patterns the flocks of birds were making over the skies. It was magical. And this book feels equally magical with one out of the four section devoted to photographs of these swarms of birds. This is the first monograph of photographs by Richard Barnes. His work for over ten years has been focused mostly on documenting the way we assemble, contain, and catalog the natural world. Click HERE to read the entire review on book-by-its-cover.com" — Julia Rothman (January 7, 2010)

Three Exhibitions and a Monograph for Richard Barnes FAAR06, Society of Fellows, American Academy in Rome:
"Animal Logic is also the name of Barnes just-released monograph. The book is published by Princeton Architectural Press and focuses on work done over the past 10 years, including images made during his fellowship at the Academysuch as starlings performing breathtaking aerial displays above Rome, primarily shot in EUR." (October 31, 2009)

Music, theater and more., Philadelphia Weekly:
"To classify Richard Barnes as an ex-wildlife photographer may be misleading. Its not the photographer whos stopped. Its the wildlife. For his latest book, Animal Logic, Barnes trains his camera on the musty, dusty world of those post-mortem critters spending their dirt naps in our natural history museums. Weve grown accustomed to seeing glass-eyed antelopes suspended, forever, in frozen leaps. We see lifeless lions, paused in the seconds before they launch into pursuit. Barnes takes us beyond the velvet ropes, beyond the track lights, to the days and hours before the exhibit opens for a haunting and surreal study of death imitating life. Part archive, part autopsy, its perfectly weird. Barnes signs his book and talks about bubble-wrapped giraffes belated grizzly bears at the Academy of Natural Sciences, itself a resting place for moose and a pachycephalosaurus." — Paul F. Montgomery (January 20, 1010)

When the History Isnt Quite Natural, Metro International:
"In his first collection of photographs, Animal Logic, Richard Barnes lifts back the curtain on natural history museums, creating a backstage drama in diorama form. A man in surgical white meticulously places grass into the ground, mere inches from the jaws of two wolves; in another he vacuums the snow-covered plain underneath the head of a buffalo." — Shaun Brady (January 18, 2010)

Richard Barnes: Museums, mortality and eternal return, The Night Train:
"Its a critical survey of the way we see nature from inside an institution, but with the incorporation of Murmur, a 2007 multimedia installation about starling migration in Rome, the exhibition takes on a layer of graveyard meditation, too: the defiance of death through the eternity of taxidermy (hints of humanitys romance with ancient Egypt, and Barnes worked there on a dig with Yale); the creepy liveliness of a mounted stags head; the second death of a stuffed specimen taken off display; with the starlings, aspirations of eternal return." (October 6, 2009)

Diorama-o-rama, The Smart Set:
"This is likely why Richard Barnes' photographs of natural history dioramas in various state of repair have drawn attention since they were collected in a book of his work Animal Logic, released in the fall." — Jesse Smith (January 28, 2010)

Galleries open to celebrate Art Detroit Now, The Detroit News:
"Friday evening, the Detroit Institute of Arts will unveil a new Fluxus installation in its contemporary galleries, while the Cranbrook Art Museum and Cranbrook Institute of Science fuse science and art with Animal Logic: Photography and Installation by Richard Barnes. To read the full review on detnews.com click HERE. " — Michael H. Hodges (October 1, 2009)

The Spartan Daily:
"Photographer Richard Barnes reveals his interpretation of the relationship between humans and nature. To listen and watch an audio slide show of the Animal Logic exhibition at thespartandaily.com click HERE. " — Shiva Zahirfar (March 3, 2010)

i before e:
"Animal Logic a new book published by Princeton Architectural Press, is the first monograph for acclaimed photographer Richard Barnes. Focusing on his work of the past decade, and his 2004 solo exhibition of the same name, the book presents over 100 photographs that explore the collecting and display of animals in natural history museums. His measured, pensive images illustrate the process involved in creating the artificial dioramas and displays. Click HERE to read the entire review on susan-fama.bolgspot.com" — Susan Fama (December 9, 2009)

A Bird In Hand, PDN:
"Every evening, in a certain area of Rome, thousands of starlings perform an intricate ritual. They fly in unison in various directions, creating massive shapes in the sky, before they settle down to roost...As humans we make sense of the actions of the starlings by seeing familiar shapes in their flight patterns, or ornithologists theorize about why the act takes place, but they dont know for sure. I like that kind of duality between what we bring to it and what the animals are actually doing, says Barnes." — Conor Risch (Septmeber, 2009)

Daily Dose Pick: Richard Barnes, flavorwire:
"Photographer Richard Barnes reveals the artifice and strange beauty of animals in a natural-history museum. Barnes has spent over a decade cataloging the way we amass, conserve, and display elements of the natural world. His new monograph, Animal Logic, matches his images of the objects behind an exhibition partially wrapped specimens, anatomical models, exploded skulls, and taxidermied animals in shipping crates with counterparts from the real world inhabited by living wildlife. Referencing science, history, archaeology, and anthropology, Barnes work offers a reminder that there is nothing inherently natural about going to a museum to see animals. In his photos, a plastic-wrapped giraffe is suspended in midair against the trompe loeil backdrop of a savannah, a pack of stuffed wolves lunges at a museum preparer inspecting blades of grass, and other creatures (leopards, emus, and bears) hang out in packing crates. Explore the artists official website, read his interview with Rosencrans Baldwin, visit the Animal Logicexhibition at Michigans Cranbrook Art Musuem, and buy a copy of the new monograph. To read the full review on flavorwire.com click HERE. " — Kelsey Keith (September 23, 2009)

Animal Logic, Photo-Dialogue:
"In Animal Logic, Richard questions our exploitative relationship to the 'other than human' world. He brings a deep interest in curatorial processes to his work, challenging our conception of what should be saved and what should be forgotten or discarded. On his website he asks, simply, "Whose past is worthy of collection and preservation and whose is expendable and why?"I think it is the notion that we are already choosing who is expendable that challenges me the most...Shifting from the complex beauty of airborne starlings to haunting images of crated gazelles, Richard's work prompts me to think that time is running out for many of our most spectacular species and, perhaps in turn, for the wider ecosystem. I realise I am fearful of the day when the curator holds our memory of the natural world." — Steve Marshall (November 5, 2009)

The Art of Natural History: Richard Barnes Breaks Out of the Museum , Treehugger:
"As a photographer, Richard Barnes has focused on exploring architecture and archaeology. From excavations in Egypt to Ted Kaczynski's cabin, Barnes has captured the border between contemporary culture and the built environment.Barnes' work has also led him into the museum. His photographs, however, are not contained by the walls of a museum. In his new book, Animal Logic, Barnes gives us a new look at a natural world that is inescapably touched by human influence." — David DeFranza (January 20, 2010)

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