A velvet ant, a flower and a bird
When
This exhibition has now ended.
Location
A velvet ant, a flower and a bird evoked a garden of knowledge anchored by three familiar figures from nature — a velvet ant, a flower and a bird. These figures represent a parliament of beings, each carrying symbolic and metaphorical weight that encourage us to reimagine what intelligence means.
Each museum floor was presided over by one of these natural entities, creating a kind of garden where there is no pre-established order, but rather an ecosystem in which the analogue and the digital interrelate to give rise to a fantastic mental realm.
Drawing from the University of Melbourne’s Classics, Biology, and Art collections, alongside new commissions and performances; historic and contemporary art co-mingled to envision intelligence as living, continually evolving, interconnected and interdependent.
Guest curated by Professor Dr Chus Martínez, Head of the Institute of Art Gender Nature at the FHNW Academy of Arts and Design, Basel, Switzerland.
Art Museums Papers 03: The continuous creation of life purposes
by Chus Martínez
Edited by Pippa Milne and Linda Michael. Published by Museums and Collections, University of Melbourne. Designed by Paul Mylecharane for Common Room.
$10 each – available to purchase in gallery.
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Exhibition Floors
Learn more about the natural entities presiding over each floor
A velvet ant, a flower and a bird Commissions
Read about the works commissioned exclusively for the exhibition
Meet Miles Howard-Wilks
An Arts Project Australia artist whose long-standing fascination with animals and the natural world comes to life through his latest series.
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Supporters
This exhibition was made possible by
Pro Helvetia: Swiss Arts Council, Danish Arts Foundation, Swedish Arts Council, Embassy of Spain in Canberra, Oxenford Collection, Institute Art Gender Nature, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW and TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.
