Step into a garden of ideas at the Potter Museum of Art, where three familiar figures from nature – a velvet ant, a flower and a bird – will encourage you to rethink what intelligence really means.
A velvet ant, a flower, and a bird is a new exhibition curated by the internationally renowned curator Chus Martínez that draws on works from the University of Melbourne's art, biology and classics collections, alongside contemporary commissions and performances, to propose a radical rethinking of how knowledge is made and distributed across species and materials.
Structured around the velvet ant, the flower and the bird, each 'being' carries a symbolism: the velvet ant, inspired by recent scientific research into its light-absorbing body, represents radical adaptation and material intelligence; the flower is there to embody renewal and creative transformation; and the bird, drawing on studies of flocking behaviour, points to the power of collective intelligence.
Historic artefacts and contemporary artworks sit side by side, forgoing the usual exhibition hierarchies between disciplines, objects and media. Visitors to the exhibit will move through an environment and let their imagination take the lead. Rather than presenting knowledge as fixed or linear, Martínez invites audiences to think relationally – to consider intelligence as something shared across living systems, environments and technologies.
The exhibition features work by a wide-ranging group of Australian and international artists, including Joan Jonas, Taloi Havini, Rivane Neuenschwander and Cao Guimarães, Salvador Dalí, Angela Goh, John Pule, Naomi Hobson and many others. A lively public program of talks, performances and events will run alongside the exhibition, including an opening weekend celebration in February and the Potter’s annual Interdisciplinary Forum in May.
To find out more about A velvet ant, a flower and a bird, visit the Potter Museum of Art website here.
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