Dauma | Creatures of Habit & Drew Mosley | Deimatic Behaviour

October Exhibitions at Wall Space Gallery
Dauma | Creatures of Habit
Drew Mosley | Deimatic Behaviour
October 8 - 27
Opening Reception: October 15, 3 – 5 pm with artist talk from Drew Mosley
RSVP your attendance to responses@wallspacegallery.ca

Wall Space gallery is proud to present Drew Mosley’s Deimatic Behaviour and Dauma’s Creatures of Habit. These concurrent solo exhibitions explore evolutionary traits in nature and their metaphorical connection to human social and biological patterns.?

Deimatic Behaviour refers to startle reflexes produced by any creature that has a weak system of defense. These creatures rely on sudden illusory bodily transformations and vibrant, sometimes pulsating, surface pigmentation in an attempt to distract or scare predators away. Familiar instances of this survival mechanism can be seen in fake eye spots on butterfly wings and octopi’s undulating, multichromatic skin and ability to quickly enlarge their body to appear intimidating. Rich with symbolism, Mosley’s humanization of predatory creatures asks us to examine our role in the decimation and exploitation of the natural world and build empathy for the earths most vulnerable.?

While Mosley hones in on anthropomorphic characters, Dauma offers equal doses of anthropomorphism and zoomorphism – the tendencies to equate human characteristics to the non-human and vice versa. This intentional flipping of perspectives is at the heart of Dauma’s understanding of what it means to be human. She connects aspects of human experience to the structures and habits of the other-than-human to nod at the fact that we are not so dissimilar.

?Through darkly comedic human figures and otherworldly porcelain creatures, Dauma explores nature as a metaphor for the human condition and escapism. Her hybrid flora-insect creatures are tethered to our world, but feel as though they originated in an alternate dimension. Humour is an underlying thread amidst the fantasy of Dauma’s world; ants adorned in party hats partake in human rituals and indulgences, beetles are frosted like cupcakes with spirals of icing sprinkled with toppings, and flowers look back at us through human eyes. Dauma artfully combines humour and the uncanny to suggest that humans, in all our elaborate emotions and societal structures, are not so far removed from our earthly roots.?


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