Alicia Frankovich: Atlas of Anti-Taxonomies

Alicia Frankovich Atlas of Anti-Taxonomies (2019–22). 16 dye-sublimation prints on PVC backlit polyester; 3 SD videos, colour, vertical, duration 5 secs. Installation view at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. Courtesy of the artist, Starkwhite Auckland and 1301SW Melbourne

Alicia Frankovich Atlas of Anti-Taxonomies (2019–22). 16 dye-sublimation prints on PVC backlit polyester; 3 SD videos, colour, vertical, duration 5 secs. Installation view at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. Courtesy of the artist, Starkwhite Auckland and 1301SW Melbourne

This exhibition is now closed

An installation de-categorising the world to reveal the wild disorder of nature.

Using found and constructed images of phenomena, beings and objects, Alicia Frankovich questions fixed ideas of nature, showing the wild disorder and differences in our world. Ranging from the interior of the earth to genome sequences to close-ups of ant eyes, Frankovich suggests there might be other ways of seeing, connecting and describing the world. Atlas of Anti-Taxonomies references both art historian Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas, a collection of images mapping “art history without a text”, and a cluttered computer desktop or Google image search. Images of various scales and contexts are combined in a seemingly haphazard manner, yet these are in fact carefully orchestrated configurations, drawn together by the artist to expand our understanding of all things.

Date:
23 February – 22 May 2022
Location:
Touring Gallery A
Curator:
Melanie Oliver
Exhibition number:
1127

Director's Foreword

Welcome to B.207, the autumn edition of Bulletin. Like the rest of the country, the Gallery has been operating under the Government’s Red traffic light setting since late January. It has to be said that art galleries are, in general, pretty good places in which to practice social distancing. However, while we remain open and welcoming visitors, the recent surge in the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is affecting our ability to schedule our programme. Our team are working hard to continue bringing you a range of exhibitions, events and activities, but as we are all finding throughout so many areas of our lives right now, planning (in the short, medium and even long term) remains tricky. It’s an evolving situation and, reflecting this uncertainty, I encourage you to keep an eye on our social media channels and website for updates.

Continued

Commentary

Alicia Frankovich’s Atlas of Anti-Taxonomies

Orange peel, ant’s eye, hibiscus flower, rhubarb, bacteria, a space blob, a virus, an x-ray of a human skull – human, non-human, inhuman, entangled and disordered. In the Atlas of Anti-Taxonomies, artist Alicia Frankovich groups these things by difference rather than sameness, showing them to have dynamic relationships and visual rhythms. Consisting of over 100 images that the artist has gathered, constructed and found, Frankovich’s carefully selected and arranged collections of phenomena, beings and objects glow from lightboxes hung throughout the gallery space. Their collated, overlapping and montaged images are wild and vibrant. Their placement on the large screens feels momentary, as though this is just one iteration of many possible permutations, disrupting any typical or static taxonomical order. In making this work, Frankovich has drawn on the extensive body of research around posthuman ecologies, decolonising nature and queer theory, underscoring this beautiful exhibition with complex ideas of domination and control.

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B.