Towering/The Garden, The Menagerie
2021-2024
Produced from images filmed during a residency at ACME Studios in London in 2020 and 2022, and revisited in 2024. The work is based on research into natural history museum collections (those of the Natural History Museum) and heritage sites (in Greater London, Warwickshire and Hertfordshire), to explore some pressing issues linked to the phenomenon of biodiversity loss and the climate crisis. To this end, the work draws parallels between two types of event: the recent arrival of new bird species from the South on British soil, and the historic advent of menageries in colonial England in the 17th and 18th centuries.
This research is part of a broader initiative entitled Towering, a sailing term referring to the refraction effect that causes distant objects to appear more vertically elongated than they actually are. The project questions the notions of the living world inherited from the modern era: a world decontextualized, simplified and there to be exploited. It documents certain forms of the modernist conception and knowledge of the natural world such as the garden, the menagerie and the natural history museum collection, then reframes them to suggest other possible interpretations.
Video
Produced and directed by: Geneviève Chevalier
Camera: Geneviève Chevalier
Editing: Geneviève Chevalier, Alexis Landriault
Colour Correction: Alexis Landriault
Sound Design and Editing: Bruno Pucella
Audio Mastering: Bruno Pucella
Special Thanks
Conseil des arts du Canada
Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, programme de résidence d’artistes
ACME Studios
Alex Bond, Senior Curator in Charge, Birds, Museum of Natural History at Tring
Library and Archives, Museum of Natural History
Packwood House
Main Film