"Invader Species & Strage Fruits"
From "Strange Fruits - Bad Seeds"
with John Casey at Reciever Gallery
Oct- Nov 2007

In 2006, I spent a month touring the surviving cabinets of curiosity in Germany and Austria. I have always taken an interest in plants and animals, real and fantastic, and have a fondness the display of nature in a museum setting. Seeing the early European displays of naturalia was inspiring for me: the blend of science and pseudoscience, the pedagogical and commodified, the organic and the opulent. Perhaps in reaction, the objects I make seem part specimen, part treasure, referencing the natural world yet unattainable therein.

“Strange Fruit - Bad Seeds” continues with the naturalia themes in recent work, but returns to human forms again as well. The exhibition takes inspiration from the cabinets of curiosity, using them as a framework within which to explore such themes as femininity and fertility. The exhibit includes wall-mounted sculpture and paintings intended to evoke antiquarian science displays. It also includes a window display installation of an imaginary habitat, inspired by a dream, which perhaps approaches the same subject matter through a more modern lens.