Proposal

This is a gallery to exhibit the life and work of Alfred Russell Wallace whose theories about evolution pre-date Darwin’s.The ‘site’ is in one wing of the Sarawak Museum and this temporary gallery would last 2-3 years targeted at the general public especially children. We were interested to explore a different way of exhibiting the artifacts while keeping in view the educational intent, flexibility and cost effectiveness.

He spent a portion of his life in Sarawak and made several significant discoveries here. We were inspired by Alfred Wallace’s ‘moth nets’ – a device which he rigged in the jungle using bedsheets hung like a 3 sided room with a hurricane lamp in the middle of it to attract insect specimens.

We created a series of rooms using his ‘moth-nets’ as a homage to the man and also to prolong the journey through the relatively small space. The displays will be then printed or mounted on the ‘walls’ which can be actual fabric or some form of semi-rigid translucent panels.