Prey

Prey – part of the solo show The Specter of Malthus, curated by Matteo Lucchetti at MA*GA in Gallarate – is a work composed of a Victorian-era museum display cabinet containing a block of rock salt harpooned as if it were prey, signifying the historical responsibility of museum displays as devices for capturing and asserting power over exhibits. Salt, which was one of the earliest currencies, is a symbol of mining, of nourishment, and here, specifically, also a simulacrum of the sea, understood, in its crystallization, as the primordial space of life.