Joseph Gregory Rossano: Vanity

In 2013, numerous animal species were declared extinct. Man’s destruction of natural habitat, introduction of invasive species, and over harvest pushed them into memory. Joseph Gregory Rossano: Vanity is an installation, an expandable exhibition, and a detailed publication created by Rossano and a team of scholars and artists. Eleven extinct species are represented in various ways: sculpturally in specimen jars; drawings in the Naturalist’s tradition; historically in scientific descriptions and a scholarly catalog; and obscured by man’s DNA sequences. It is as if we could reconstruct each species with all the information provided, but Rossano complicates this act of mental remediation—his clear glass sculptures submerged in water are almost imperceptible, and we are only given a clouded glimpse of the portraits of these species. What we can best see is ourselves reflected in the mirrored glass sculpture below the cabinets reminding us that this is our vanity, literally and figuratively.