Object Lessons is a one-evening series of tiny lectures based on the objects from the current Proteus exhibition, Object Migration. Object Lessons takes some of these objects and focuses in on their stories, transforming the object into a lense to magnify history and social patterns. The talks will address the history of ornithology in America, nuclear waste since the Bomb, plastics manufacturing, and the contours of the generic object.  Object Migration, the exhibition, is comprised entirely of objects, each one accompanied by a concise story of the object’s migration through space and time.

The Lectures

Bryan M Wilson will focus on the material Trinitite, formed in the first nuclear test blast, July 16, 1945, in the New Mexico desert. He will discuss how it operates as a conceptual vessel and example of human invention interacting on geologic timescales.

Lorena Turner follows the trail of bread tags, the slotted plastic tag used to close plastic bags of bread and other groceries. Patented by Kwiklok Corp in Yakima, Washington, the plastic bag “closures” are big business. Lorena will trace their journey from post-production to your local grocery store.

Sam Droege will trace the lineage of an early 20th century collection bottle containing the contents of a bird’s stomach. The bottle comes from the first ever foray by the Federal government into the study of migratory birds, who, like criminals, cross state lines, thereby attracting Federal scrutiny. Collected in the 1920’s by scientists to determine which birds were “good” and which were “bad” from an economic point of view, most of these bottles have disappeared with time but a few have turned up at Proteus for further study.

Tatiana Istomina will examine all 50 objects in the exhibition using statistics to discuss the commonalities and differences between various clusters of the objects. She will attempt to build a description of a “typical object” in the Object Show.

Our Speakers:

Proteus Gowanus and the Museum of Matches invite you to join us for the opening reception of The Berlin Tunnel Project, an installation inspired by a declassified CIA document describing 
a tunnel that was dug from West to East Berlin during the Cold War. The Museum of Matches, a one-room Cold War museum, occasionally invites visitors to respond to Cold War documents, photographs and memorabilia. The Berlin Tunnel Project is a collaborative installation by three artists whose countries of origin comprise the three countries involved in the Berlin Tunnel episode: Tatiana Istomina (Soviet Union), Barbara Westermann (Germany), Sasha Chavchavadze (United States).

The Berlin Tunnel

In 1954, the CIA began to dig a tunnel from West Berlin to East Berlin for the purposes of tapping into Soviet phone cables. The completed tunnel took a year to construct and was 1,476  feet long. 3,100 tons of soil was removed and the tunnel was lined with 125 tons of steel.  The KGB, however, had been informed of the project from the start by a Soviet mole in the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6) named George Blake. Most likely the KGB did not reveal that they knew about the tunnel to protect their mole. In April 1956 the KGB “discovered” the tunnel and released the information to the world press. American newspapers generally marveled that the CIA was capable of such a remarkable clandestine maneuver.

A declassified, redacted CIA document describing the tunnel can be found on the web. It describes in fascinating detail the history of the project from its inception to its completion, including intelligence derived from the project and articles in the American press after the tunnel was revealed to the public.

Cold War Cocktails will be served.

Museum of Matches is open to the public on Fridays, 3 – 6 p.m. or by appointment.