REFRAMING BIODIVERSITY

Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 2021.

This installation invites the audience to explore the Discovery Centre at the museum through Novak’s eyes. Drawers and cases are marked to highlight specimens that challenge heteronormativity and show diversity in sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics. In addition, a selection of images from the Queensland Museum Network Image Library are displayed, digitally edited by Novak to reflect the often hidden and diverse dimensions of each subject. These are primarily living organisms taken from natural history books written as early as the eighteenth century.

This work formed part of the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10). The photos of all work at QAGOMA were commissioned for APT10. Images courtesy Queensland Art Gallery l Gallery of Modern Art. Photography: Katie Bennett, Chloe Callistemon, Merinda Campbell, Marc Grimwade, Joe Ruckli, and Lee Wilkes.