At a distance of forty-two days
Jenny Gillam & Eugene Hansen with Adrian McCleland
Te Tuhi, Auckland
1 August, 2015 – 25 October, 2015
John Hurrell’s EyeContact review
Commissioned by Te Tuhi.
Photos: Sam Hartnett & Jenny Gillam
At a distance of forty-two days is the result of a long-term research project with scientists from the Institute of Natural Resources at Massey University. Serving as both art and genomic science, this long-term project involves an investigation into a rogue colony of native New Zealand stick insects that became established in the Tresco Abbey Garden in the Isles of Scilly (off the southern coast of the UK) during the early twentieth century.
In 2014 Gillam and Hansen travelled to the Scilly Isles with entomologists Steve Trewick and Mary Morgan-Richards to observe the insects; live specimens have subsequently been kept in a Physical Containment facility at Palmerston North and crossbred with New Zealand insects for the purposes of further scientific research. Here questions of evolutionary adaption meet the cultural significance of repatriation and the lingering historical implications of early globalisation.
Related projects:
Image courtesy of Mike Nelhams , Tresco Abbey Garden Curator. Photographer - Frank Gibson.
