Susan Gold
Applied Science
January 4–February 2, 2008

The Trophy Room project began with the legacy of 18th century Swedish Botanist, Carl von Linné, known for developing the binomial system of classification. His great project to name and systematize all of nature has formed the basis of modern science. Literaria, the last category of Linné’s great outline, Systema Naturae, the category holding the sum of all unquantifiable knowledge has dropped off the table.

Perhaps the lost Literaria can still be found in the displays of natural history museums – each diorama installation imbedded with its own history and view of the natural world. “No Place” inhabits the space of decoration, a porous space that surrounds us in the images and patterns of wall paper, as photographs, paintings, collectables, and the physical space of digital illusion – the space containing the flux of our knowledge, memories, desires, and treasures.

Inside the Trophy Room examines the working space of the artist/ scientist, creating a proscenium theatre for the laboratory. Reifying the lost subject. Following the subjects’ gesture and gaze. Simultaneously allowing the process control and asserting the artist’s presence. Entering and scrambling the systematic diagram examining inside and outside the perimeters.