MAPh | Sydney Sealife Aquarium, Sydney, Australia

Sydney Sealife Aquarium, Sydney, Australia2014

from the series Views of Paradise

pigment ink-jet print

150.0 x 120.0 cm

reproduction courtesy of the artist

Artist statement:
Views of Paradise is a research project that aims to create a world atlas of the artificial environments of zoos and aquariums, as an investigation on the relations between the zoo and the concepts of paradise, utopia, dystopia and heterotopia. This project signals the possibility of a meaningful existence for the empty zoo, either as image or an actual site, by shifting the viewer’s gaze from the animal to humans, as principal agents in the destruction of the environment, and our failed attempt at its re-creation.

Currently, the focus of this project is Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia), where it will identify the characteristics that are related to this region’s natural and cultural environments.

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MAPh acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong People, and recognises their continuing connection to the land and waterways.

We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging and extend this to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People.

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