MYRIAD / 2011-2018

2011-2018, felt pen on paper and laser print, variable dimensions

Scientific illustrations of the 18th-19th century tended to isolate the studied object from its context. If we take a look at animals’ depictions for example, they all seem to float in a white, empty space, giving us no information about their habitats. Also in the 19th century, a children’s cards game called Myriorama became very popular. Those cards depicted people, animals and things on a series of compatible backgrounds, which allowed the child to combine them in different ways, always creating new landscapes and stories. Just like editing a film. The popularity of the Myriorama coincided with the one of the diorama, panorama and cosmorama. Inventions that served an interest in the depiction of spectacular landscapes and events.

In the bestiaries of the middle ages, descriptions of real and fictive animals were confined to a symbolic and allegoric interpretation. Animals were used as moral symbols to influence human behaviour.

At the crossroads of these three references Myriad investigates possible habitats for fictive animals that Leite drew some years ago, speculating about their stories, contexts, meanings and feelings to reflect on the current perspective of animal depiction, its meaning and political use.

Exhibition view Capitalo, Chthulu, and a Much Hotter Compost Pile, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien