Darwin's Finches - artwork by Eloisa Guanlao

“Darwin’s Finches are at once fossilized records and a critical examination of the myopia of nineteenth century positivist science that endures today. The wet collodion glass ambrotypes capture images of “stuffed” birds endemic to the varied regions of the United States where I have lived. As a cultural material form, they compel deliberate meditation upon the benefits and pitfalls of technology on the circadian rhythm of living species. The ambrotypes are housed in stylized, wooden view cameras, harkening to the early days of field photography. The ambrotypes of “stuffed” birds perch as poignant, but pale souvenirs of real birds migrating over real places.”

Eloisa Guanlao