A velvet ant, a flower and a bird
Exhibition Dates. 19 Feb – 6 June 2026
A velvet ant, a flower and a bird
at The Potter Museum of Art
Melbourne, Australia
Guest curated by Professor Dr Chus Martínez, @the_chus_martinez
Head of the Institute of Art Gender Nature at the FHNW Academy of Arts and Design, Basel, Switzerland.
A velvet ant, a flower and a bird evokes a garden of knowledge anchored by three familiar figures from nature — a velvet ant, a flower and a bird. These figures represent a parliament of beings, each carrying symbolic and metaphorical weight that encourage us to reimagine what intelligence means. Each museum floor is presided over by one of these natural entities, creating a kind of garden where there is no pre-established order, but rather an ecosystem in which the analogue and the digital interrelate to give rise to a fantastic mental realm.
Drawing from the University of Melbourne’s Classics, Biology, and Art collections, alongside new commissions and performances; historic and contemporary art co-mingle to envision intelligence as living, continually evolving, interconnected and interdependent.
Photographed by Nani P - post via instagram @nani.visit
