Web(s) of Life: Animal Guides

Tomás Saraceno’s exhibition at Serpentine was made to bring different species together. I wrote three unexpected audio guides for the show, each from the perspective of an animal.

In ‘Web(s) of Life’, artist Tomás Saraceno celebrated the spiders living at Serpentine, opened its doors to dogs, and offered birds new roosts on its roof. While working on the gallery’s Editorial team, I proposed that animals, instead of humans, should ‘guide’ the exhibition’s audio tour. The team asked me to create these scripts, as I had developed similar works in my own artistic practice.

I wrote fictional monologues from a pigeon, a spider, and a dog, based on the real animals’ anatomy, behaviour and sensory perception.

These distinctive characters encounter different elements of the show, and I collaborated with a voice actor and audio producer to bring their journeys to life for listeners. The ‘pigeon’ story was also published in the exhibition book.


Project credits

Voice acting by Rosie Akerman. Production and sound design by Mae-Li Evans for Reduced Listening.