Melissa Barton, Writer

Monterey Bay Aquarium’s popular exhibit Jellies: Living Art will be closing September 14, 2008. This exhibit contains both spectacular living specimens of a variety of jellies (”jellyfish”) from around the world rarely seen in aquariums and a variety of art that echoes the shapes, colors, and movements of the jellies, ranging from Blaschka glass models of jellies and engravings by Ernst Haeckel (left) to Dale Chihuly’s spectacular glass art.

Jellies: Living Art was unusually visitor-driven in its design. The aquarium interviewed over 300 visitors about their experience with the permanent jelly exhibit, and found that 97% wanted an aesthetic experience–and 35% cared only about the aesthetic experience, not the content. Many visitors enjoy simply being with the jellies. [1]

Jellies: Living Art celebrates the beauty of living jellies and how they and their environment have inspired artistic works. While conservation messages are present, the exhibit focuses primarily on aesthetics, not science. The exhibit proved overwhelmingly popular–it opened in 2000, and has been extended several times due to public demand.

Although it’s hard for art to compete with jellies in my mind (my favorites are the Mediterranean jellies, left), I was particularly struck by the Blaschka glass models (c. 1886), which were created much earlier than most of the Blaschka models I have seen elsewhere, such as the glass flowers at Harvard. While delicate and beautiful, they are much less strikingly realistic and delicate than the Blaschkas’ later works.

Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, a German father-son team of glassworkers, created hundreds of educational glass models of sea life and terrestrial plants for universities and institutes in the late 1800s and early 1900s. These models, unlike preserved and pressed specimens, retained color and shape (particularly important for jellies), making them perfect for teaching science. The Blaschkas used wire armatures, glue, and paint as well as glass to create their realistic sculptures. No one since has been able to replicate their techniques.

One intriguing aspect of the Blaschka’s marine models, particularly the later ones, is their “dry” appearance. However, as artist William Warmus notes, “Wetness is given to us by visual cues–drops of water, irregularities of sheen–that can’t exist beneath the waves.” Warmus’s fascinating essay on the Blaschka marine invertebrates contains photographs of some of their more sophisticated jelly models, almost indistinguishable from real jellies. [2]

According to docents, the jellies from Jellies: Living Art will be moved to permanent exhibits or to other aquariums. The permanent jelly exhibit on the second floor will remain open (photo at left).

Where: Monterey Bay Aquarium, 886 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA 93940 - 1085, USA
When: Until September 14, 2008
More Information: www.montereybayaquarium.org

[1] ZooLex, a resource for animal exhibit design, discusses the method behind the exhibit design in more detail.

[2] The Design Museum’s touring exhibit of Blaschka marine models also contains some spectacular jellies.

Photos © 2008 Melissa Barton