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Friday, June 15, 2012

Visual Arts An imaginary ballet takes shape at the CDC

Posted by Andrew Alexander on Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 6:59 AM

smallcdcm-som-model-theater-ebenstein-2.jpg
  • courtesy Joanna Ebenstein/CDC Museum
Walking into the exhibit Savior of Mothers: The Forgotten Ballet of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis with its old scrapbook, crumbling program, and yellowed German newspaper clippings, you could be forgiven for momentarily believing that the 19th-century ballet they all describe is real. But the ballet Savior of Mothers is entirely the product of the imagination of New York-based artist Joanna Ebenstein.

In a blend of the real and the imaginary, the historical and invented, Ebenstein's small, one-room installation, now at the CDC David J. Sencer Museum through September 5, displays artifacts and ephemera from an imaginary ballet about a very real historical figure: the early 19th-century Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis.

A German review of the imaginary ballet Savior of Mothers from the exhibit The Forgotten Ballet of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis by Joanna Ebenstein.
  • courtesy Joanna Ebenstein/CDC Museum
  • A German review of the imaginary ballet "Savior of Mothers" from the exhibit " The Forgotten Ballet of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis" by Joanna Ebenstein.
Semmelweis was the first to theorize that Childbed Fever was caused not by bad air or tight corsets or the will of God—all of which had been proposed—but by what he termed “cadaverous particles” delivered on the hands of well-meaning doctors and students who examined women directly after post-mortem dissections without first washing their hands. His theories were largely ignored: the idea that doctors themselves could be the source of infection was troubling and controversial at a time before germ theory. Semmelweis became increasingly bitter and erratic in his behavior until he died in a madhouse at the age of 47 from the very disease (septicemia) he had dedicated his professional life to conquering.

In 1891, his remains were reinterred in his native Budapest. There was no grand ballet performed to mark the occasion or to honor the posthumously-vindicated "savior of mothers," but what if there had been?

Artist Joanna Ebenstein imagines a romantic ballet performed on the occasion of the reinterment of Semmelweis as an "alternate counterfactual history." Ebenstein's installation includes costume designs for characters from the ballet such as "Plague Demons of Cadaverous Particles" and the "12 mourning mothers from beyond the grave," as well as a model theater, posters, reviews, programs, and more. The exhibit is conceptually a knock-out (although the drawings themselves are not).

A costume design for one of the 12 mourning mothers from beyond the grave by Joanna Ebenstein
Ebenstein is a New York-based multi-disciplinary artist and independent scholar. She runs the popular Morbid Anatomy blog and the related open-to-the-public Morbid Anatomy Library. Her work centers around the interstices of art and science. Recent exhibitions include Anatomical Theatre, a photo exhibition celebrating medical museums around the world; The Secret Museum, a photo exhibition exploring the hidden, untouched and curious collections; and her recent exhibition The Great Coney Island Spectacularium, which explored turn-of-the-20th century Coney Island as the pinnacle of pre-cinematic immersive amusement.


"Savior of Mothers: The Forgotten Ballet of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis" by Joanna Ebenstein runs at the David J. Sencer CDC Museum, 1600 Clifton Road Northeast, through September 5. Admission is free. For more information, visit the CDC or call (404) 639-0830.

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