Echoes of the Forest | Zipporah Thompson
Echoes of the Forest by Zipporah Thompson revives and extends Agustina Woodgate’s installation The Forest (2009) through the addition of a series of surreal habitat dioramas. Set within tall brass display cases lined with bark textured mirrors, bundles of gauze, fur, and string become ambiguous zoomorphs caught fluttering, hovering, floating, swimming above strange primordial landscapes of moss, wood, and crystal. Tucked into a series of nested spaces -- from the container of the museum to that of the room to the small shell of the display case -- they are intimate spaces for daydreaming.
Thompson’s intervention incorporates Ashley Yeo’s delicate skin/bark paper-cuts for Blue Yonder (2013) and a tree-crown of ethereal blue dresses from Shannon Stratton’s Not4$ale (2013) to provide a renewed sense of compositional unity for the overall installation and to underscore the dreamlike quality of these elements. The introduction of soft light into the room lends itself to the sense that this glittering, cool forest of mirrors and glass is a twilight world, while Thompson’s use of organic materials and evocations of creaturely life suggest the warmth and vivacity of real forests.
