[ISEA2009] Artist Statement: Vince Dziekan – The Ammonite Order, Or Objectiles for an (Un)Natural History, 2009

Artist Statement

Digital prints, laser cut Perspex, mixed media, digital media, iPods, variable installation

Revolving upon notions of coincidence and synchronicity, The Ammonite Order, Or Objectiles for an (Un) Natural History explores a nondeterministic relation between digital mediation and spatial practice that supplants the primacy of real objects present in gallery space. The theme for this work evolved out of imaginatively projecting a fictive ‘correspondence’ between two local personages: the architect George Dance (the Younger) and naturalist Charles Darwin. Enamoured with the idea of the museum as a ‘haunt of the muses’, the narrative fabula unfolds as a multidimensional installation that combines an inventory of installation elements (or ‘props’) with an accompanying collection of portable media ‘samples’. These forms gain added force through their recycling and recombination. Collectively, these motifs establish an iconography that operates across the exhibition’s interconnected, narrative structure.

  • Vince Dziekan (AU) Acting Head Multimedia & Digital Arts and Research Leader of the Photography and Video Research Network at Monash Art & Design, Melbourne, Australia.

Full text (PDF) p. 15