Taxidermied large black scorpion, feathers, glass bell-jar; mounted on a wood stand with Kurdish decorative pewter dish.
As exhibited at Lage:Egal Gallery in Berlin, “Pageant of Palamnaersus” is the first model in a series of insect death battle sculptures to be included in my current project for installation entitled “Nouveau Baroque Decay in the Age of Post-Voyeuristic Darwinism“.
The installation is inspired by the concepts of metamorphosis, mutation, and degeneration as a natural precursor to evolution. I am specifically concerned with how evolution presents itself biologically, architecturally and culturally.
What Darwin called ‘the war of nature’ also plays itself out in the human arena. Man too, particularly the weakest members of modern society, must face the competitive rigours of their environment. In relation to this idea “Pageant of Palamnaersus” takes on anthropomorphic qualities.
As a culture we are no longer “peeking through the keyhole” at the secret lives of others. In this sense, voyeurism is extinct. The new “viral” model cannot exist without audience participation. We are openly and critically engaged in contests, triumphs and failures to such an extent it has become the pan-ultimate form of commercial entertainment and pageantry.
Shiva Lynn Burgos 