Die Sammlung

Disguising imaginary biology, 2017

Heather Beardsley (US)

Die Sammlung (The Collection) is a project that contrasts the methods of presentation of the museum and art gallery. The museum is familiar to everyone, developed over time to communicate knowledge within established and accepted narratives to a general audience. These conventions convey the importance of the objects, but can discourage critical thinking. For this project, the artist’s fictional specimens have been installed in antique jars alongside actual biological specimens. By installing these works together, the artist encourages viewers to think more critically when viewing and interacting with museum displays.

BIO

Heather Beardsley is an American visual artist from Virginia Beach, USA. She got her BA from the University of Virginia in 2009, and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015. Heather was granted a Fulbright Scholarship for Installation Art in Vienna, Austria for the 2015—2016 academic year. She has exhibited work throughout the United States and Europe, including exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Austria, Germany, Slovakia and the UK. In 2016, she was awarded a twelve-month Braunschweig Projects International Artist Scholarship by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, Germany in affiliation with the Braunschweig University of Art. Recent exhibitions include Department Of at the Braunschweig University of Art, and Books Undone: The Art of Altered Books at The Gallery at Penn College, USA.

heatherbeardsley.com

@heather_beardsley