Parallel Lives
2019. Plexiglas®, MDF, aluminium, projection, humans.
Parallel Lives unmasks the self-reflective pursuit of looking at animals. Natural History Museums play a key role in meditating interspecies interactions. Particularly in the urban context, these institutions offer accessible encounters with nature which would otherwise be impossible. Enabling humans to defy their own time, geography and physicalities; museums facilitate absurd meetings of species which generate a captivating sense of educational escapism. However, there is a fine line between education and entertainment, observation and domination. Atop spotlit stages, animal corpses are choreographed, reanimated and immortalised. In this way, the museum becomes a theatre of the natural world, whereby other species are used to play out human biases, desires and prejudices.