As he led me into the back of the store, the light from the outside world fading into a tangled forest of knick-knacks and curios I began to think that perhaps, finally, I had found the place and that this, after all my searching, could be something special.
I had been scouring the junk shops, antique dealers, and curio shops of this particular city for over a month, sifting through the myriad and manifold collections of disparate delights looking for that one treasure that would be the centerpiece of my exhibit. I had, it is true, discovered several interesting artifacts amongst the cornucopia of dross and useless things, but nothing that stood out to me as a genuine one of a kind object of curiosity, such as would make visitors to the exhibit gasp or force the tiny hairs on the backs of their necks to stand on end. Now, finally, I hoped, I may have found such an item.
The exhibition, `Creatures, Collections, and Curios' had been booked for months. The idea was to arrange one room of the gallery into the appearance of an old curiosity shop, overlaying and storing a vast array of `things' from around the world and showing through these tangible, solid objects, the power of narrative. My idea was for the visitor to be able to...
