Pond [2022]
Pond is a multimedia installation which uses sound, video projection and augmented reality to infiltrate our vision of the pond as a living habitat, complete with amphibians and insects. Inspired by the taxidermy process involved in dioramas, the intention of a nature diorama is to construct a replicant of a specific ecosystem for the sole purpose of it acting as an educational time capsule for that environment. The Pond reiterates this process in order to extrapolate metaphors of species extinction and ecosystem collapse, resituating the diorama in a contemporary setting using digital technologies. I believe the diorama itself is paradoxical with its intentions of preservation; when dead versions of sentient beings which were once living are represented artificially, the end result harbours a new meaning of commodification. My own embodiments of nature intentionally misrepresent our perception of natural landscapes in the same way, as artificially created creatures masquerade as living ones, akin to how taxidermied creatures do in natural history dioramas.
