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SYSTEMA NATURAE
Kunsthall Stavanger group exhibition contemplating humankind’s relationship to nature |
Systema Naturae, developed for Kunsthall Stavanger by independent curator Mirja Majevski, brings together the work of six contemporary artists: Ann Böttcher, Sanna Kannisto, Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky, Kustaa Saksi, Salla Tykkä, and Michael John Whelan. Rooted in botany, the international group exhibition sets out to contemplate humankind’s relationship to nature. |
The exhibition borrows its name from a book first published in 1735 by Swedish naturalist Carl Linné (Linneus). The publication, together with other volumes by Linné, came to play a pivotal role in the establishment of universally accepted conventions for the naming of organisms. The Linnaean system, being the first one to methodically use binomial nomenclature, epitomized the far-reaching aspirations of the European plant sciences that were coming of age during the eighteenth century. During this time, as the European colonial empire expanded and generated a vast influx of new specimens, the elite scientific community raced to establish a system that could accurately describe and consistently catalogue all of the plants in the world. Imagine if another way of organizing and naming would have prevailed over the Linnaean system – would we now see the world differently?
While displaying their distinctive ways of interpreting and relating to the natural world, the artworks featured in the exhibition also allude to historical modes of organizing and conveying information about natural flora, thus piecing together a fragmentary history of botany.
Kustaa Saksi’s sizeable jacquard loom tapestries borrow freely from shapes and patterns of flora and fauna. Like early botanical illustrations, they engage the observer in a hypnotizing play of forms and colors, such that the distinction between fantasy and verity is rendered incidental.
While displaying their distinctive ways of interpreting and relating to the natural world, the artworks featured in the exhibition also allude to historical modes of organizing and conveying information about natural flora, thus piecing together a fragmentary history of botany.
Kustaa Saksi’s sizeable jacquard loom tapestries borrow freely from shapes and patterns of flora and fauna. Like early botanical illustrations, they engage the observer in a hypnotizing play of forms and colors, such that the distinction between fantasy and verity is rendered incidental.
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