Fashionable people of another age once paid good money for odd bits of flora and fauna, which they collected and displayed in fine cabinets in order to wow their friends. These cabinets of curiosities were the Pinterest of their day, which shows that their really is nothing new under the sun. Cary Horton and Sherri Jaudes offer a modern twist on this old custom with their exhibition Cabinet of Curiosities: Pictorial & Dimensional Oddities. Horton's photographs appear to come from another dimension, with eerie figures and animals floating in front of hazy buildings, an effect she achieves by using an ink jet printer directly on the film. Jaudes constructs realistic, albeit metallic, insects and plant specimens, then displays them in bell jars and frames. Cabinet of Curiousities opens Saturday, September 14, at phd gallery (2300 Cherokee Street; 314-664-6644 or www.phdstl.com). The show remains up through Saturday, October 26.
Thursdays-Sundays. Starts: Sept. 14. Continues through Oct. 26, 2013