Lonely Island

Extinct Species

Dream

In the video _Bat’s Wool_, which is a CGI animation, the artist uses original excerpts from the written accounts of travellers such as Marco Polo, Antonio Pigafetta and Pedro Pizarro, which bear witness to both geographical discoveries and first encounters with previously unknown civilizations. This reality can no longer be seen because it has been irretrievably destroyed. One-sided accounts framed as stories are the only remnants of worlds that no longer exist. In this sense, they somewhat resemble descriptions of lost paintings. They also contain a universal reflection on human nature and our place in the world, prompting reflection on both the present and future.

  
Today, with the help of Google Earth, it is easy to take a virtual journey to the most exotic places in the world, as most of the planet has been thoroughly and accurately archived by means of photographic and film records. This is why the original descriptions of expeditions that made the first important geographical discoveries are so fascinating. The accounts of travellers and explorers from those times are today not only an exciting read, but also a real journey into the unknown. The work is an attempt to reconstruct missing images, to fill in the blanks with visual representations.

Bat Wool

Botanical

**_Land of Darkness_** is a CGI animation based on Roald Amundsen’s journal entries documenting his expedition to the South Pole. The narrative is constructed from selected excerpts—specifically, the harrowing descriptions of the deaths of sled dogs that pulled the explorers’ sleds. The "conquest of the South Pole" became possible through the use of dog sleds, and many of the dogs paid for this journey with their lives.

  
The work presents a story largely based on real accounts of polar explorers. These detailed descriptions, extracted from the journals, commemorate the forgotten animals and reveal a largely untold version of events, one in which the fate of the animals has been entirely overlooked in official narratives. _Land of Darkness_ reframes the story of the expedition from a new, post-humanist perspective.

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Anna Orlikowska

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