JENNIFER FRANZKE
“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons“
Alice Walker

Jennifer Franzke is an artist, architect and an associate scientist at the Natural History Museum Vienna. Her large scale watercolours take on 'the theme of an encroaching nature that has at once a celebratory and an apocalyptic feel to it. Jennifer‘s animals are beings out of place, not just in contact with civilization but in possession of it. They are symbolic of species adaptation and co-dependent survival, not a celebration of nature in the abstract or transcendental, but of its concrete, immanent presence.’ (Prof. Dr. Peter Sahlins)

If before it was man's ignorance or man's desire to explain natural phenomena through the creation of myths and mythical figures perhaps in the future the reason for the creation of such encounters and stories of mythical creatures will be for actual occurrences which are taking place now. Species that have fallen victim to human-induced biodiversity loss and climate change are real. Inexplicable phenomena and creatures with an aura of mystery will perhaps be replaced by sensational sightings of already extinct species (see Tasmanian tiger or great auk). Maybe they are the mythical creatures of tomorrow… (Dr. Bettina Riedel,  Natural History Museum, Vienna)