ABSTRACT

Preternatural, the exhibition that I curated in 2011-12, considered the aesthetic relations between nature, wonder and the extraordinary.1 The curatorial concept evolved from the idea that art itself is a form of preternatural pursuit and began with the following premise:

Preternature is more than nature as science, or nature as art – it exceeds the boundaries of these classicatory systems and opens up a space where the species of things conjure wonder and curiosity, as well as fear of the unknowable. This exhibition calls for a rigorous exploration of the habitual ways by which nature is known to us, a questioning that unfolds the limits of the sub-sensible imagination. It draws from the idea that art itself is a form of preternatural pursuit, in which the artist negotiates the bewildering condition of being in between the mundane and the marvellous in nature. Preternatural questions a world that understands itself as accessible, reachable and ‘knowable’ and counters it with a consideration of this heterogeneous phenomenon.2