Heliogabalous 2002

Description

Nathan Nissim is a social worker and a collector. Here he makes a selection from his many collections, which include found objects, minerals and his extensive collection of contemporary Pittsburgh art. This selection is set out in a museum case and suggestively arranged to evoke a cabinet of curiosities, a surreal realm or perhaps an art object in itself.

The case contains:

1. Fear: Eric Stern
2. Iron trade mark (heater)
3. Pencil decorated with beads
4. Black jade fragment, partly polished
5. Black limestone sphere with ammonites
6. African (Yoruba) door key
7. Watch case, marcasite beads
8. Pair of African metal die stamps
9. German handbill, 1920’s
10. Metal toilet paper holder, Albany, New York
11. Pair of cast iron flower holders
12. 12 lb. Iron shot put, iron base
13. Discus
14. 2 magnifying glasses, bases
15. Multiple convex lenses
16. Electric lamp, glass base
17. Untitled, drawing: James Brindle
18. African double bracelet, ivory
19. Pair of ivory spheres
20. Pair of bone dice
21. Quartz bird point arrowhead
22. Bone spear head
23. Rubber arrowhead
24. Assemblage: Nathan Nissim
25. Pair of manikin forearms
26. Red velvet box
27. Green velvet riding hat
28. Untitled: Emil Lukas
29. Agassiz bottle, Civil War era clay balls
30. Tin ball
31. Snow globe
32. Celluloid swan
33. Pig, advertising ephemera
34. Volume of drawings of sheep
35. Glass tray, clay marbles, 3 glass marbles, 1 dried orange, 2 steel ball bearings
36. Ubu Compendium: Alfred Jarry
37. Intaglio print: Susan Lang
38. Cloth toy (ball)
39. Sacred Heart
40. Watercolor: Anonymous
41. Small papier maché trumpet (sun)
42. Pot  metal clown
43. Carnival punk
44. Assemblage: Nathan Nissim
45. Magazine illustration of African nail fetish
46. Spinning toy
47. Magazine clipping depicting magazine clippings
48. Clicker
49. Toy whistle (blackface)
50. Roman bronze fragment (head)
51. Ambrotype
52. Carved nude: Mark Blaustein
53. Watch fob
54. fractured mortar (War of 1812) base