Reliquary Cabinet for a
Disappearing Species - Eastern Quoll,
Tasmanian eucalypt, metal
containers, feathers, fur, leaves, earth and rock, 2001, with drawings by
John Wolseley, 2001, (161 x 47 x 38cm)
This cabinet is one of 2 made originally for the exhibition, Tracing the
Wallace Line by John Wolseley in 2001. |
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This exhibition considered
the idea of the parallel evolution of plants and animals on each side of
the Wallace Line, a biogeograhical boundary delineating the differing
faunas of the eastern and western regions of the Indonesian Archipelago
Like Alfred Russel Wallace,
John Wolseley travelled extensively through
Indonesia documenting the differences and correspondences in the flora and
fauna.
The concept for the cabinets was developed whilst drawing plant
specimens in a Herbarium in Java, where Wolseley speculated if there would
become a time when much of what remains in the natural world will be found
only in the cabinets of museums
Wolseley commissioned Linda
Fredheim to design and make a pair of cabinets to contain specimens "in
memory of lost species", one for each side of the Wallace line. Each of
the cabinets is made up of layers of specimens held in metal collecting
boxes with the top of the cabinet containing a casket-like collection of
specimens and drawings which can be glimpsed through the door
handle/peephole.
Collection John Wolseley |
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