The Museum of Fear and Wonder
An interview with Brendan Griebel and Jude Griebel
This past summer, Unleash Editorial Director Ashley Holloway headed out on a road trip to check out The Museum of Fear and Wonder, located in Bergen, Alberta, Canada. After waiting two years for tickets, she was not disappointed. Ashley sat down with brothers Brendan Griebel and Jude Griebel to discuss their fascinating collection, curated over the past thirty years.
Ashley Holloway (AH): Hi, Brendan Griebel (BG) and Jude Griebel (JG), of The Museum of Fear and Wonder! Thanks for taking some time with Unleash. We were thrilled to share your narrative with our creative community. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your brother, Jude, who are the creators of the collaborative project called, The Museum of Fear and Wonder?
BG + JG: Jude and I grew up in the Canadian Prairies, sharing a childhood spent deep in the imaginary: local folklore, ghost stories, playing in abandoned farm houses, and the like.... It's probably because of this that we both chose adult professions dedicated to visualizing and communicating inner worlds, being employed respectively in Anthropology and the Visual Arts. Throughout these careers, we’ve gravitated to the contemplation of material objects that speak to the larger picture of how humans understand their places in this world. Jude’s work as an artist assembles intensively detailed figurative sculptures that visualize our entanglement with the surrounding world through themes of waste and consumption. Brendan is a cultural anthropologist in the Canadian Arctic, focusing on the roles that objects and museums can play in supporting communities’ revival and celebration of their traditions.
AH: What was the impetus behind this project?Â
BG + JG: The objects displayed in the Museum of Fear and Wonder stem from a highly curated private collection that we assembled over the past thirty years. We spent much of our youth traveling, and got into the practice of referencing objects to help us make sense of, and articulate, the new places we were encountering. As time went on, the importance of collection began to dominate our travel agendas. Our trips increasingly became about seeking out remote and unusual material collections around the globe and trying to figure out the stories and motivations that lay beneath their collection. Small museums and private collections, like artworks, are often material manifestations of an individual’s beliefs, fantasies, and convictions about how the world does and should work.Â
When an object is uneasy, it resonates in either positive or negative ways. It possesses people and draws them in.
Over time, the scope of our collection gradually became focused on what might be termed ‘emotionally uneasy’ objects. These are objects that transcend their material nature to merge with human psychology. When an object is uneasy, it resonates in either positive or negative ways. It possesses people and draws them in. This might be through the stories that it carries, its special material properties, or its place within a larger historical tradition of making. Unlike many other museums, we tend to collect or organize our objects according to their emotional properties rather than any specific typology. In our museum, medical, decorative and ritual-based antiques will be displayed next to art, kitsch and folk objects, weaving expansive and imaginative understandings of human experience and the otherworldly. Artifacts range from Victorian era wax heads to vintage Halloween masks, anatomical models, dolls and artworks depicting transforming and anthropomorphic bodies.
In the tradition of Prairie museums, the exhibits at the Museum of Fear and Wonder pair visual cues for truth and science with the ambiguities of myth to draw their audience into a willing state of suspended disbelief. Through meticulously crafted dioramas and the arrangement of objects according to personalized taxonomies, the boundaries that separate the ‘real world’ from the ‘world as we want it be’ grow less defined. It is in this imaginative environment that the psychology and potential of objects takes hold.
AH: I would imagine this type of work takes you to many different corners of the globe. How do you go about finding these pieces for your collection?
BG + JG: As we both travel for work, we are able to dedicate time during these trips to visit obscure collections, meet with other antique dealers and collectors and especially visit flea markets. We are also ingrained in a global community of collectors and gatherers of historic materials. People often assist us in finding objects that complement our collection, as we in turn help search out things for others.
AH: Your collection fascinates me. I love how each piece highlights the intersection of how stories are created with how humans interact with the objects in their surroundings. Is it possible to sum up this complicated relationship with just one object from your collection?
BG + JG: Many of the objects in the collection are built for certain reasons, and those reasons–and sometimes the identity of the maker themselves–are often lost to time. These objects can then accrue new meaning and purpose as they are re-adapted by subsequent owners, allowing them to become layered in meaning and the trace of their former function. For instance, some of the intricately crafted wax mannequin heads in the collection were created to promote understanding of history in museum dioramas, but when those displays were dismounted, the heads were painted with blood and relegated to carnivals or chambers of horror displays.
These objects can then accrue new meaning and purpose as they are re-adapted by subsequent owners, allowing them to become layered in meaning and the trace of their former function.
One mannequin in the collection was originally a department store clothing mannequin of an adolescent boy. Its body was adapted by a high school health teacher in the 1970’s to warn his students of the dangers of smoking. It was fitted with internal lungs and a suction system so it could smoke cigarettes, and speakers that played auditory hacking and coughing. In this case, these layers of meaning are evident in a model of a healthy young man meant to sell clothing, being transformed into a model of unhealth.
AH: Is there an object you would love to have in your collection, or anything specific you are looking for?
BG + JG:Â We are especially drawn to crafted papier-mache anatomical and zoological models of the French firm of Auzoux. These models were pioneered by physician Louis Auzoux who revolutionized the didactic science model by combining the toy technology of composite materials with vivid surfaces, hand painted by the artists that his factory employed. The resulting works are hybrids of toys, learning models and art objects. They are scarce and most of the remaining models are in museums. We have numerous pieces in the collection but are always seeking ones that are large and fully intact examples, as we are so in awe of the craftsmanship.
Intrigued? To find out more about the museum and ticket information, visit here.