“Taxonomies”
Fleur Summers
20 June → 12 July 2008

Taxonomies explores relationships between objects. It is an empirical exercise in equivalence and divergence, an experiment in the visual nomenclature of classification and a dissertation on the materiality of the construction of systems of thought. It is concerned with the manufacture and production of particular histories through the formal analysis of fifty specimens.

Taxonomies is informed by the attempts of Charles Darwin to understand the temporal arrangements of the living objects via the notion of infinite change. The objects in Taxonomies were produced in response to the sheer multiplicity and complexity of the natural world, its endless variations and ability to produce exquisite material adaptations. As a collection, they contain, support and enact a layered history, an archive of process and a document of action.

Fleur Summers recently completed a Masters degree in Fine Art at RMIT. In a past life, she trained and worked as a Microbiologist.