read about this series
Taxonomia: 2011, Photographs (Print on Film).
These photographs are printed either medium or large.
Medium Size 24“h x 34“w or Large Size 40“h x 54“w
The photo series Taxonomia investigates the archive of animal bodies stuffed in jars, held in place by pins, wrapped up in string, and stuffed, mounted and displayed in an effort to render the anarchy of the natural world into the strict categories of science. Knowledge of the animal world through biological taxonomy—domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and finally species—is an ancient practice, with origins in the work of Aristotle (in the ancient world) and Linnaeus (the forefather of modern practices). It is also a practice fast coming to an end, as science shifts from learning about animals through visual display to the invisibility of the double-helix of DNA. In place of genus and species, traced out through shifts in the colour of fur or markings of the skin, we now get a sequence flashing up on a computer screen: A-C-G-T…
Taxonomia consists of photographs taken in the University of Alberta’s Museum of Zoology, which has significant holdings of animal specimens (the Ichthyological Collection alone consists of more than 200,000 specimens representing 40 Orders and over 200 Families). The focus of these photographs is especially (though not exclusively) animals held in formaldehyde-filled jars. These specimens of floating flesh, rendered mute and colourless, gestures back to the origins of zoological collections and the dreams and fantasies associated with them—everything from the scientific desire to organize nature to collections of curiosities, examples of nature gone awry, that make up collections such as Peter the Great’s Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg.