The Metropolitan Museum of Art never ceases to surprise, offering precious gems both through its vast permanent collection and its always compelling temporary exhibitions.
Three particular highlights were gathered by Fondazione M-Cube:
Thanks to Gillett & Parson, we discover that Batman’s origins may be quite different from the comic book narrative we know today. The brief partnership between Isaac “Frank” Gillett and Charles Paxson in Chicago produced, in 1860, a whimsical portrait of a man dressed as a bat. This eerie nocturnal creature would only become a popular costume about a decade later, following the international success of Johann Strauss II’s operetta Die Fledermaus (1874).
In the same year, with minimal means, an unknown photographer created a fascinating still life using nothing more than a studio stool, a wooden plank, a woman’s boot, and a skate. First invented in the 1700s for theatrical performances, roller skates only became widely available to the public in the early 1860s, thanks to improved commercial models—similar to the one seen in the photo below.
More recent is Jesse Krimes’ striking work, Apokaluptein: 16389067. This surreal triptych—heaven, earth, and hell—is composed as a collage using images from The New York Times published between 2010 and 2013. Krimes assembled the piece across thirty-one prison-issued bed sheets during his incarceration, adding hand-drawn elements and smuggling each sheet out of prison one at a time. The title blends a Greek root of the word apocalypse (meaning “to uncover” or “to reveal”) with his inmate number.
With only a narrow view of the outside world, Krimes relied on newspapers, gradually noticing a disconnect between editorial narratives and the symbolism in the accompanying photos – including those from the fashion section. By reconfiguring these images and their stories into a tripartite landscape marked by reward and punishment, Krimes proposes that visual media can be used to manipulate and influence society. His reimagined visual narrative invites viewers to experience the world—flipped through image transfer – through the lens of the artist’s incarcerated perspective.
