wood, glass, plastics, gel wax, acrylic stuffing, paint, pewter, chrome, hair, dust, textiles, grass, found objects, silicone, motor, LED lights, sound, speakers, fog machine
On show as a part of Crosscurrents, at FUMA
Photos by Grant Hancock
cnidolysis noeëidolon is an almost four-metre-long speculative sculpture, a cryptid whose existence is yet to be scientifically proven. Washed up on the floor, the organism appears to be a foreigner to the gallery. Its laboured breathing, illuminated innards and long tendrils make it an ambiguous arrival. Did it surface from the deep past or as an anomaly of our emergent future?
Like the sculpture itself, which combines materials, surfaces and textures, the cryptid's genus-cnidolysis noeëidolon-is a portmanteau. It hybridises several terms and references: cnidaria is a classification of aquatic invertebrates with barbed stinging cells, including coral, sea anemones and jellyfish; lysis is a biological term for the rupture of a cellular wall; and noesis combines the Greek word for mind, nous, and eidolon, meaning a phantom or spectral image. As the artist states, this combination describes 'a liminal being in a state of dissolution and cognition, a speculative remnant.'
-Belinda Howden, 2025
