WILDLIFE CON/PRESERVATION, 2018
Installation
This work was developed as part of the final semester display during my undergraduate course. I was looking at what makes art and the thin line of difference between specimen and art. I preserved dead insects and reptiles in clear resin(epoxy). I mostly work around the idea of wildlife conservation so I was questioning what will make us value these creatures who co exist with us. Is it because we've run out of alternatives to save them/conserve them which was anthropocentric to begin with and preserving them is perhaps a way to make them timeless.
During the course of the exhibition 10 of my 24 specimens got stolen while on display. These critters are seemingly abundant in nature and hardly matter but the moment I had preserved and museumised them is when they started having some kind of artistic VALUE which made them POSSESSIONS that could be ACQUIRED. There was a deep consumer ethic to this where it tries and touches upon the idea of accessibility and how it comes with privilege and knowledge. In a way, the people who stole or took it answered a few of my questions without even knowing what the work was about and gave me tangents to work around. Treating something as abundant as nature, as something exotic because in a way, we know we're losing it and this is the only chance we have; Treating nature as fetish.
My work is titled wildlife con/preservation where even I take an ironical stand where I run out of alternatives to save them and so I preserved them where even I treat them as possessions. I had meant my work to be tactile and things that people wouldn't touch otherwise(insects, dead animals and reptiles, bones) were converted into these curious objects of collection through my intervention.
Touch allows one to have the liberty to see it up lose and experience it while still maintaining the distance(which are usually seen as repulsive), not having to touch it directly as they are inside resin structures. This work allows people to maintain a certain sense of distance or dissociation while still maintaining a sense of intimacy.
PROCESS
