Freaky vegetable art - Tasty?

The Bangor Daily News has announcements of an attention-piquing event that I thought some of you might be interested in -- a greenhouse-based art exhibit of two-headed hybrid vegetables (among other things).

Mark your calendar
By BDN Staff
Thursday, August 14, 2008 - Bangor Daily News

through sept. 6 It’s not exactly "The Island of Dr. Moreau" — but it’s something like that. Artist Sam Van Aken has created an installation at College of the Atlantic that’s equal parts science experiment, meticulously tended garden and commentary on the nature of reality and our perceptions of the world, in his new exhibition titled "Eden," on display through Sept. 6 at COA’s Blum Gallery. Van Aken, who has taught at the University of Maine and currently teaches at Syracuse University in New York, worked with a geneticist to create a line of hybrid seeds, which he then planted and grew inside a greenhouse, which he installed at the gallery. The result is a strangely beautiful orchard of what he called "excessively grafted fruit trees," growing bizarre-looking vegetables. Van Aken received a Maine Arts Commission artist fellowship for "Eden," which, appropriately, is in a gallery located on Eden Street in a town formerly known as Eden. The Blum Gallery is open 11 a.m.- 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 288-5015 ext. 318.[Source]

The press release for the show announces that Van Aken has "transformed the Blum Gallery into a multi-media installation that floats somewhere among the biblical parable of the lost paradise, a do-it-yourself garage project and a science fiction fantasy, leaving the visitor pondering human's propensity to tinker with nature." Eden by Sam Van Aken will be on view from August 10 through Sept. 6, Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call 207-288-5015 ext. 318. The Blum Gallery is located at 105 Eden Street in Bar Harbor, North Entrance. Use the outside stairs or enter at McCormick Lecture Hall for access to elevator and inside stairway.

I'm going to try to visit it when I'm up there on vacation -- if I do, you can be sure there'll be photos if I'm allowed!