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Inventory of Collectables After the Flood (Lismore): Please No Alligators I & II
project8 gallery (It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim 
2026





Inventory of Collectables After the Flood (Lismore): Please No Alligators I, 2026,  Ilfotex print (water resistant fabric), water colour pigment and a single strand of artist's hair, 84.1 x 59.4cm.

Inventory of Collectables After the Flood (Lismore): Please No Alligators II, 2026, digital mini print on Hahnemuhle bamboo paper behind water colour pigment, water based acrylic binder and 50 strands of the artist's hair, 47 x 33cm.




A salvaged 35mm film cell depicts an alligator, taxidermied, its status and location are unclear. The animal appears both trophy and specimen: preserved, displaced, suspended between threat and decoration. An Ark-adjacent figure: absent from biblical inventory yet evolutionarily equipped for a flood. The work draws on the writing of Val Plumwood, who survived a 1985 crocodile attack in Kakadu during which approximately one third of her body was mauled. Rather than framing the event as aberration, Plumwood described the encounter as a confrontation with human exceptionalism—an abrupt recognition of herself as food within a broader ecological order. Strands of the artist’s hair are trapped between image and glass, inserting bodily trace into the frame. The gesture complicates the trophy logic of the photograph, resisting mastery and instead acknowledging the artist’s position within the food chain.

Photos: Lucy Foster and project8 gallery ((It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim)

Exhibited as part of the solo exhibition (It is Necessary to) Learn to Swim at project8 gallery Melbourne

February - April 2026