Judging the worm
2022
Michael Lett, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Part of wiggling together, falling apart, organised by Victoria Wynne-Jones and Lucy Meyle.
With Hany Armanious, Dan Arps, Emerita Baik, Renée Bevan, Wendelien Bakker, Heidi Brickell, Xin Cheng, Stella Corkery, Yana Dombrowsky-M’Baye,
Claudia Dunes, Erika Holm, Yukari Kaihori, Lucy Lord Campana, Nicholas Mangan, Te Ara Minhinnick, Kate Newby and Jenny Palmer.
Judging the worm uses linguistic misinterpretation to reimagine an outcome from an animal trial of 16th Century Europe within the gallery space. A group of the worms charged with destroying crops stand in for the rest of their brethren, if guilty they would also have been tasked with disseminating the verdict handed down to them. A newsprint declaration circulated to the guilty requests them to leave the afflicted fields and pastures on threat of anathema or malediction. At the time of the original court cases, animals who act in groups were more likely to be prosecuted not in secular court but ecclesiastical court, as they came not under ‘man’s jurisdiction’ but God’s. In this case the earthworms represented are most likely inaccurate - the word ‘worm’ was a loose term at the time, referring to all manner of ravenous and wriggling larvae and grubs who are more likely to be to blame.
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Pewter earthworms, newsprint declaration
a glancing blow, text by Su Ballard. [PDF: 49kbs]
