“Tidings of Invisible Things” is part of a suite of works that draws upon the Victorian predilection for scientific curiosity, a desire to compress the marvels and curiosities of the natural world into the confines of a display case enmeshed with a scientific urge to classify and enumerate. Far from eulogizing this obsession of another era with nature in the abstract, I use this format to draw our attention to more contemporary concerns tracing the adverse effect of human consumer waste on certain species, and documenting the pathologies and viral strains that might become prevalent as a result of human’s abnormal interactions with other species. I am interested in presenting to the viewer an exploration of the human relationship to the natural world as scientific observer tied with an awareness of our impact and interrelationship with other species on an often less visible scale.

This installation looks at a parasite that enters into an ecosystem and causes deformities in frog populations. The Ribeiroia parasite has a clever reservoir and host transmission, starting from wetlands birds intestinal wall’s where they reproduce, to water snails, then on to amphibians where the deformities occur which then render the frogs as easy prey only to be eaten by the birds and so the cycle starts again.  Scientists investigating why these frogs have become susceptible to this strange phenomenon believe it is due to a number of reasons. The increase of agricultural pesticide run off may be weakening the frogs’ immune system and in addition warming pond water temperatures have allowed the parasite populations to increase in number.

 I have chosen to use drawing as a deliberate vocabulary, referencing its historical role of observational scientific record and analysis. I have also chosen to use the display mode of the Victorian era alluding to the notion of Cabinets of Curiosity and The Wunderkammer. The collections and observations of the Natural World during that time were in some ways indicative of a deeply uncomfortable relationship with nature.  Man was becoming a dominating force, controlling, classifying and profiteering from nature. Although celebratory of the mosaic and abundance discovered within the Natural World it was also a time where the acquisition and display of specimens of nature were tied to larger issues, that of global trade and ultimately the commodification and subsequent exploitation of nature.  I am interested in exploring these ideas and playing with the juxtaposition of the Victorian aesthetic of eulogy and an almost macabre fascination with collecting or recording items of the dead. I see my work as articulating a record of a version of nature that is neither bucolic nor benign. In turning nature into a kind of cultural souvenir of man's activity I want to highlight it is something that we might in fact be altering forever or perhaps close to losing.