Illuminated Curiosities is an ongoing arts-based research project that explores the interaction between natural objects, man-made materials, and light. The installation features a series of translucent shadowboxes displayed on a vintage, repurposed light table. Inspired by Curiosity Cabinets from the early modern period through the Victorian era, this growing assemblage seeks to illuminate various facets of the history of collecting.

Traditional curiosity cabinets displayed artificialia (human-made items) and naturalia (items from nature), which were arranged to stimulate curiosity, wonder, and dialogue. Naturalia displayed in Illuminated Curiosities shadowboxes include horseshoe crab molts, cicada wings, pressed flowers, snakeskin, and box turtle scutes.*  Artificialia in the shadowboxes includes transparency and vellum cuts, which were designed in a vector graphics program and machine-cut.

Through my arts-based research process, I considered the following questions: 

• How has the collection, categorization, preservation, and display of natural history collections changed over time? 

• How do the practices of collecting, organizing, and display reflect the values of a society? 

• How have power structures (such as wealth, colonialism, and gender) impacted collecting practices?

Illuminated Curiosities was originally created as part of a collaborative installation for the grand re-opening of the Peale Museum in September of 2022, but has since been displayed in various iterations including at the Baltimore County Arts Guild and the Center for the Arts Gallery at Towson University. The installation has explored interactivity in different formats using corresponding animations accessible via QR codes, inclusion of magnifying glasses, and laminated information cards hung on the table with magnetic hooks.

*No animals were harmed during the making of this project.