Bridgette Ashton | ARTIFICIALIA: Fake Minerals & Fancy Plinths

ARTIFICIALIA: Fake Minerals & Fancy Plinths is a new body of work by multidisciplinary artist Bridgette Ashton presented as a touring exhibition and online digital presentation. The work reflects on questions of replica and reimagining and on collectors and collections.

Three wooden cabinets house what appear to be elaborately presented geological specimens hinting at the desire for discovery and wonder, yet on closer inspection the contents reveal themselves as appropriations of mineral-like objects.

Artificialia Digital incorporates the physical sculptures into a virtual tactile experience, encouraging participation and interaction from local and international audiences while acknowledging new ways in which we experience and interact with artworks.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated publication, not only a document of the works in the exhibition but also an extension of the project with newly commissioned texts by writer & historian Ben Street and cultural historian Celeste Olalquiaga.

The title of the exhibition, Artificialia, refers to “items wrought by man”, one of the groupings of objects in 16th-century royal treasury Wunderkammer.