"The Kafkaesque" is a video mapped and sculpture installation at the Whanganui Museum 2015:
"When an object is removed from its historical context and placed within a museum, the explicit and singular story in which the artefact was formerly imbedded can be lost or compromised.
The process is transformative, for while the object may lose its unique history on entering a museum exhibition, it generates infinitely more stories in the imaginations of the museum visitor.
The Infiltrations II project builds on this idea, favouring the notion of the Wunderkammer (Cabinet of Curiosities) as a collection of objects intended to generate wonder and speculation. The purpose of the exhibition is to engage visitors with object histories, sometimes with deceit and sometimes in earnest, but with a playfulness which extends, interrogates and multiplies the pre-existing stories the Museum already contains.
There is an intended element of surprise and deception within the project. While some works may be obvious, others are more subtly integrated within the Museum, so visitors have to differentiate between the art works and the existing exhibitions."
Libby Sharpe
CURATOR CULTURAL HISTORY
Whanganui Regional Museum
