Dunedin Museum Of Natural Mystery

A relatively new, private museum, the Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery is both cabinet of curiosities and artistic showcase.

A New Museum For Dunedin

As we learned recently, Dunedin has some very well-established museums, including the country’s oldest history museum in the form of Toitū Otago Settlers Museum. Otago Museum is the region’s hub of natural, cultural and scientific collections, and Dunedin Public Art Gallery is the place for historic and contemporary art.

To supplement these larger institutions there are a handful of smaller museums and historic sites. You can visit the Gasworks Museum or head out to Port Chalmers to see their Maritime Museum, among others. A few years ago in 2018 a new museum opened, further enhancing this selection. The Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery is a private museum, established by artist Bruce Mahalski. It occupies four rooms and the hallway of Mahalski’s home in Dunedin’s Royal Terrace, close to another, rather different, visitor attraction: the historic home Olveston.

The Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery fills an interesting niche. The city’s newest museum, it also connects Dunedin’s museum landscape to the forerunner of museums: the cabinet of curiosity. It blends this historic model seamlessly with contemporary art by Mahalski himself, and also includes a sideline in environmental activism. Quite a lot going on for a small, one-man institution! Read on as the mystery deepens, so to speak.

Dunedin Museum Of Natural Mystery

The Salterton Arts Review and friends visited the Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery in the leadup to Christmas 2022. As this is a private enterprise and requires owner Bruce Mahalski to open his own home to visitors, hours are understandably contained to Friday afternoons and weekends. After ringing the doorbell Mahalski admitted us, arranged our tickets, and gave us a quick orientation. There is a natural flow to the rooms, although the fun is in looking at the details which can be done in almost any order.

Once inside, the cabinet of curiosity vibes are quickly apparent. Mahalski, with two evidently erudite and open-minded parents, began collecting objects as a child. He is drawn to natural history, particularly the collection of bones and skulls, but has supplemented this with ethnographic artefacts and other curios. The labels are very engaging: Mahalski warned us at the outset that looks could be deceiving in terms of the most interesting objects, and this certainly turned out to be the case once we began reading the texts. Their style draws you into Mahalski’s confidence, dropping in details about his life, career, friends and family, and interests. I can tell you amongst other tidbits I gleaned that his father passed down an interest in the supernatural, and that Mahalski is passionate about music with many musicians amongst his friends.

There is also a lot of humour. In one cabinet I spied a few little soy sauce bottles from sushi restaurants, with a label describing them as something like ‘stupid fish-shaped bottles’. Elsewhere The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People is nestled between two volumes of The Evolution of Man. The texts and juxtapositions encourage you as a visitor to stop and look properly. Your favourite exhibit might otherwise be tucked away in a corner somewhere, unseen!

The Complexities Of The Cabinet Of Curiosity

As a museologist, something I found interesting was pondering the implications of a fully private contemporary museum which follows the cabinet of curiosity model. The cabinet of curiosity, or Wunderkammer, was a largely Renaissance way of displaying eclectic objects which tended towards the exotic. They showcased the worldliness of their owner while also attempting to make sense of the world. A classic cabinet of curiosity might have objects from four categories:

• Artificialia: man-made objects like artworks or sculptures
• Naturalia: remains of animals and natural objects
• Exotica: exotic plants and animals
• Scientifica: scientific instruments etc.

The Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery ticks all of these boxes, and so definitely meets the definition of a cabinet of curiosity. But as a historic means of interpreting the world, there are certain ethical minefields for the owners of contemporary Wunderkammers. What to do about the discomfort surrounding historic heirarchies of people and cultures, for instance? Or the ethics of displaying human remains? Then there is the potentially detrimental impact of collecting endangered plant and animal species.

From what I’ve seen in interviews and articles, Mahalski has responded most fully to the third question. His collection comprises either historic artefacts gathered before current attitudes and legislation had developed, or more recent artefacts collected within these guidelines. He is mindful of not negatively impacting a species through his impulse to collect. For instance he drew the line at a hippo skull as the largest object he coveted: an elephant skull is larger, but crosses an ethical line due to the ivory tusks. It’s nonetheless quite a feat to have brought a hippo skull to a Dunedin front room – an impressive sight which complements the collection well.

Recontextualising Humans

I learned from those same articles and interviews that Mahalski’s worldview is also reflected in his attitude towards displaying human remains. For Mahalski, humans are not a pinnacle of evolution but rather just another animal. Displaying human and animal remains together, or incorporating both into a single artwork, encapsulates this belief. And there is a purpose to proclaiming this loudly. Mahalski believes (as do many) that humans are on the verge of irreparably destroying the environment. He sees harm in uncritically believing [religious] viewpoints that place nature in the service of humans. Mahalski aims instead to try to be a better animal, as well as to rebalance our view of ourselves as the centre of the universe.

It will not surprise you, then, that Mahalski is a member of Extinction Rebellion, and has contributed his artistic talents to materials supporting the movement. You can see this in the items available in the on site or online museum shop.

Coming back for a moment to the point around human remains, my background researching repatriation from museum collections did leave me a little uncomfortable with some of the objects on view. It’s one of these classic museum dilemmas, though: some of the human remains (eg. skulls used by medical school students) probably entered commercial trade through unequal power relations of some form or another. Mahalski gives some background here. But at the same time what to do with them now is a question that museums around the world, large and small, grapple with. The Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery is as good a place as any to surface and engage in these discussions.

Visiting The Dunedin Museum Of Natural Mystery

And I think this is really the key to the Dunedin Museum of Natural Mystery. Each piece is so interesting, and presented with such visual impact and humour that it naturally sparks conversation and curiosity. The museum is therefore best visited with a friend or two, but failing that Bruce will likely be close by and happy to chat about his collection, which is after all his passion project.

From reading about the museum in preparation for this post, I can also see how much it has evolved since its opening in 2018. I think it’s a good one to revisit for this reason, so will likely be making a return trip when I’m next in Dunedin.

Lastly whether you are a local (especially if entertaining visitors) or are visiting yourself, it’s a great ‘off the beaten track’ option. Impress your friends and relations by taking them to this unassuming (apart from the Easter Island rongorongo glyphs) Dunedin villa and revealing the treasures within. Worth the slight detour from the central city: set aside an hour or so if you want to really have a good look at all the rare and curious objects on display.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5