Hello. I am very curious. Are you?

I’m the kind of person at a party who talks to everyone. My speciality is being a generalist. A particular kind of generalist who creates gentle tactical incursions and portals between the great knowledge practices and knowledge institutions of the world as well as how those connect to the planet we are on, and especially the vast variety and detail of its biosphere.

At times I will take on the role of artist in a gallery or scientist in a collection, in a classification method, in a field, or a public communicator in a museum public program, or an archivist in a library. But within every project there is always some attempt to either wonder about how we trade and set up hierarchies of knowledge or wonder about the great mysteries of the natural world, which we desperately need to find a new way to connect to. Whilst I am excited to come in contact with the focused expertise of specialists across all these fields, the kind of practices and professionals that inspire me the most are the ones who find ways of joining dots, of weaving threads and of putting together, and combining, those specialisms.

I think it is vitally important to question, and ultimately remove, the damaging hierarchies and privileges that our traditions of knowledge in the west have created and replicated, whilst also embracing, celebrating and expanding on the wondrous insights and understandings those knowledge practices have given us. I find a lot of value in considering non-western knowledge traditions; what they might have to say, and the way they happen to relate to the earth and to each other. I am inspired by what indigenous knowledge systems could offer us. I’m inspired by what the vast world of insects can offer us. I am inspired by what the tools and techniques of collecting, and classification can offer us.

I am working on a long term project investigating a leading female scientist, Amalie Dietrich, who was from a feminist point of view very important to the history of science; and yet also from an indigenous point of view is greatly problematic with her relationship to Australian Indigenous people. I am also working on an ongoing collection of entomological specimens, mainly Diptera (flies) which I keep in my studio, and it fuels different research and creative outcomes. I am seeking to partner with certain museums, field research stations and residencies which will enable these projects to continue and evolve.