Margaret Duston -Ordinary Things I-III and Untitled Cabinet

These pieces came about through research exploring 19^th Century Palaeontology and methods of presentation at the Natural History Museum in London.

Ordinary Things are a series of three large-scale studies of chicken wishbones.  I was interested in how the microscopic examination of something so small and insignificant elevates the status of the object.  

They are presented as something of great importance like major palaeontology specimens, mimicking 19^th century watercolour illustrations and rubberstamped by as if by a museum archivist, generating an aura of institutional approval.

Untitled Cabinet is a wooden index card cabinet, like those in the Earth Sciences Library at the Natural History Museum.  The drawers have been pared down to bone-like forms, which begin to resemble the subject matter once stored within – a kind of morphing of object with memory.