Venom: Killer & Cure @ The Natural History Museum

Audio-visual installations both unsettling and fascinating, to entice viewers into the Venom:Killer and Cure exhibition by playing on the psychology of the unknown.

A Natural History Museum commission for the exhibition Venom:Killer & Cure. Two audio visual installations exploring the fear and attraction to venom.

Twitch and Scuttle
As visitors approach the entrance to the exhibition, they glimpse fragmented images of giant shadows, instantly recognisable as something non-human, something ‘other’, but not immediately definable.
The fragmented shadows disappear and and reappear, move in erratic and
unpredictable ways, are dark and angular in appearance.
They have the characteristics many people associate with sinister creatures they don’t really understand, yet also find fascinating.

Envenomation
The second installation features the shadow of a huge spider lurking behind the screen. As visitors walk down a dark corridor a sensor is triggered and the spider leaps into action: its fangs pierce the screen and release their venom represented by immersive images and sounds. As they move closer to the screen the sound of a heartbeat accelerates the yellow venom swirls and reacts to their movement.