Fictionary of Corals and Jellies

Janaina Tschäpe's work is inspired by her ongoing exchange with marine biologist and ocean explorer David Gruber, and their voyages on the oceans among others on board the Dardanella. Gruber's research focuses on marine microbial ecology and fluorescent proteins, in an attempt to understand the perception of aquatic creatures from within their own worlds and perceptual experience. In joined drawing sessions, Tschäpe creates fantastical visual worlds that oscillate between fact and fiction, springing from Gruber's accounts of deep-sea creatures and extremophiles. The process is reminiscent of artists joining exploratory voyages or creating drawings based on specimen brought back by expeditions during the 19th and 20th centuries by travellers like Alexander von Humboldt or Charles Darwin.

In the exhibition, two leporellos filled with drawings by Tschäpe and scientific annotations by Gruber are shown. Titles like Blood, Sea (inspired by Italo Calvino's short story) and Fictionary of Corals and Jellies (both 2017) point to the merging of an inventory and dictionary of underwater life with fictional elements, drawn up by Tschäpe from Gruber's accounts and her own personal experience and engagement with submarine worlds.