A Surprising Collection…All Together Now…
/
David Moe gets a lot of phone calls. And requests. And a few odd requests once in awhile too. But this one was very much out of the ordinary. A number of months ago Dave received a phone call from Viviane Gosselin, Senior Manager, Curatorial and Curator of Contemporary Culture at Museum of Vancouver. The question she posed to him went something like this: “do you collect old prostheses?”
Dave’s answer came after quite a pause…he’d never seen himself as a collector before, specifically of old artificial limbs. But he actually did have a number of them in his possession that he’d accumulated over the last 35 years while working in the prosthetics field. But he never ever “collected” them. Dave saw his keeping of these relics as that of preserving them. That they all had a story to tell, a lesson to teach, a personality behind each one of them. And so, when Ms. Gosselin asked Dave if he’d be interested in participating and being a part of an exhibit that the Museum of Vancouver was putting together called “All Together Now”, he answered with a resounding YES!
Dave’s “collection” of prostheses includes upper and lower artificial limbs that were fabricated between the years of 1930 to the 1980’s. Some are made of wood, some of tin and from many other materials. There’s leather strapping, old joints and some very intricate and creative fabrication designs on many of these historical pieces.
This wonderful collection of prostheses is one among several other collections of many very interesting and somewhat odd items, to name a few of the 20: Chinese food menus, corsets, toys, seeds, pocket watches, pinball machines and Expo 67 memorabilia.
Dave gave a very interesting and engaging interview to Candy Palmater on CBC Radio One about his “collection”. You can listen here.
And a great article was written in the Georgia Straight. The link is here…read it, it’s great!
And be sure to go and see the exhibit, “All Together Now” at the Museum of Vancouver, 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver in Kitsilano, Vanier Park.
The exhibit will be showing from June 23, 2016 until January 8, 2017
http://www.museumofvancouver.ca/exhibitions/exhibit/all-together-now