Fauna Secreta

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Solenoglypha Polipodida

Fauna Secreta is an exhibition that adopts the characteristic appearance of a dusty nineteenth century zoology and natural history museum, presenting photographs, radiographs, outdoor sketches, maps, recorded sounds, and more, as evidence of the permeable lines between fantasy and everyday life, "evidence" and fiction. It purports to represent the work of Dr. Ameisenhaufen, who died in a car crash in 1955. The Doctor's discoveries provoked great controversy during this time. Solenoglypha Polipodida is a snake-like creature with twelve feet that can paralyze its prey with a high-pitched whistle. There are the teeth fragments of a male griffin. The photographs attest to the existence of these creatures in the realm of the ordinary, alongside the image of Aunt Maria, from Dortmund, feeding her goat. Fauna Secreta explores ideas of scientific truth and the 'objectivity' of photographic enquiry. The exhibition probes, indirectly, the dreams and nightmares of biotechnology and genetic engineering. Fauna Secreta previously toured internationally to galleries and museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Natural Science in Barcelona.