/ A SHALLOW GROUND NEST ON A GRAVELLY MOUND
The exhibition takes as its starting point observations of animals already classified as extinct. People hiking in the mountains of Tasmania have reported seeing the tracks of the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), while in Japan attempts are being made to record the howls of the Japanese wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax), even though scientists have declared both species extinct. The exhibition also examines the human perspective on imagining animals more broadly: what drives people to see animals that, according to scientific knowledge, should no longer exist. In the midst of the ongoing sixth mass extinction, longing, uncertainty and guilt are replaced by a utopian need to believe that somewhere out there, in so-called “untouched nature”, there are still new things to discover or places where extinct animals have escaped.
The animals depicted in the paintings avoid the human gaze, leaving the observations of them incomplete. The anatomical ceramic models present the essence of the animals based on their traces. While the paintings depict the mass, color and shape of the animals, the ceramics record the traces they leave behind: not much else can be observed of an animal that avoids humans, unless it can be captured and brought within reach of scientific measuring instruments.
On the right: Tammenkylväjä unilla, 2026, watercolor and oil on canvas, 105 x 85 cm