The Koishikawa Annex of Tokyo University Museum is currently hosting an eye-catching exhibition, "Microcosmographia: Mark Dion's Chamber of Curiosities." The brainchild of New York-based contemporary artist Mark Dion, the show runs until March 2.
Dion is a rare bird in the art world, drawing his inspiration from science, ecology, botany and natural history. With the collaboration of Tokyo University students, Dion selected more than 1,000 specimens from the University Museum, including stuffed birds, fossils, animal bones and mineral samples.
These items, rescued from store-room oblivion, have been sorted into eight categories of Dion's own devising: the Realm of Water, the Terrestrial Realm, the Underworld, the Realm of Air, Humankind, Reason and Measure, the Gigantic and the Miniature. Each room of the exhibition is devoted to one of these categories.