A VELVET ANT, A FLOWER, AND A BIRD
A Velvet ant by name, a wasp by family, something new is growing for 2026
The Natural History of Foreign Butterflies; The Naturalist’s Library, Entomology, Volume V by James Duncan, M. W. S., ed. by William Jardine, illustrated by thirty-three coloured plates, with memoir and portrait of Lamarck, published by W. H. Lizars, Edinburgh, 1837
Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison
Specimen 1963
2026
A Potter Museum of Art commission for A Velvet ant, a flower, and a bird
Thursday 19th of February – Saturday 6th of June, 2026
As we continue working on our new work, imagining the world as viewed through the eyes of a Velvet ant, we invite you to read a taste of what is to come.
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A Velvet ant by name, a wasp by family, so visual and textural is the image conjured. An ant who is a wasp. A wasp who is soft. Who decided this was so? Do the Velvet ants agree?
From a family, worldwide, Mutillidae number in excess of 7,000 species, and that is just the ones that we humans know about and have recorded. The Velvet ant is named after the wingless appearance of the female, who resembles, it was decided, a hairy, velvety ant. But don’t let the velvet part confuse you, like the ant component may. The Velvet ant sports armour. Armour so strong it is known to break the pins of entomologists. It is what is needed, this armour, if you are going to locate the nest of another type of wasp or bee and, once inside, lay your single egg on the pupa of the host wasp. If you were to be intercepted, you’d require armour too; your plans run counter to each other.
As Dr Ken Walker, Senior Curator of Entomology, Museums Victoria Research Institute, revealed to us, the Velvet ant is awe-inspiring. Looking at a single specimen beneath the microscope, she peered back at us, a dimorphic beauty, collected in 1963, but fantastically present. Magnified upon the screen, her striated thorax resembles amber glass. Atop her head, her GPS-like lens, which allows her to see in ultraviolet and polarised light, could be seen, and duly dreamed. And her compound eyes that allow her to see 300-frames-per-second, a level of detail inconceivable for us to fathom. Next to her, we move in slow motion, for wasps, evolutionary speaking, are so far advanced, when compared to ourselves.
Charmed by Jan Swammerdam’s (1637–1680) introduction to his The Book of Nature; (or [extended title], The History of Insects reduced to distinct classes, confirmed by particular instances, displayed in the anatomical analysis of many species, and illustrated with copper-plates), this work is our approximation of a single female Velvet ants umwelt. Her umwelt, ‘Specimen 1963’. Like Swammerdam, “Curious reader, before [we] proceed to lay [our] observations before you, [we] must most humbly request, that you will not be displeased, if in all this work [we] have only made use of [our] own observations”. Where Swammerdam offered this “as a solid and immoveable foundation to build upon,” and from which “deduced certain conclusions, solid theorems, and classes digested in due order”, we offer imaginings to the world as it is experienced by ‘Specimen 1963’.
In that world, there are many potential hosts. There is a central nest, where her one egg rests. There are tunnels to the nest, where she has chewed her way in. Buoyed by the work of Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717), together with daughters, Dorothea Maria and Johanna Helena, in which the life cycles of insects, moths and butterflies were depicted on the page, we have followed suit. Where Merian recorded the activities alongside the local flora and fauna — insects with their host plants, interactions between same and different taxa, food chains — and in doing so laid bare the connection of all things, in our work, we invite you to marvel at the ingenuity of her path (Merian, Velvet ant, both). To revel in the translucency of the wings of bumblebees, for though they are drawn, they’re still capable of flight! To shrink your own form, and see the world anew. Inspired by the concept of Charles Frederick Holder’s (1851–1915) Half hours in the tiny world: wonders of insect life, tilt your head to the side and wonder at this ‘tiny world’ writ large.
A ‘tiny world’ of a digital collage composed across a series of suspended screens, 8 metres in length and 2.8 metres high. Our floating concertina consists of eight individual drops, hanging through tension by a timber mechanism. And like the Velvet ant’s antennae, which enable her to smell her world and in doing so add to her understanding of it, this series of screens is responsive; it can compress or extend within the space, altering the angle and, thereby, the visual relationships. An archival inkjet print on Illford Washi Torinoko, there is also a hint of a wing like transparency to the pages of Specimen 1963.
And just why does this piece float from the floor? Because, prior to the Velvet ant laying her egg in a suitable host’s nest, after consummation with the winged male, he lifts her from the ground so that she can reach the protein source — the sugary nectar of flowers she’d ordinarily not be able to reach in this manner — she needs for her egg. A romanticised visual, a floral ascent, but what of it, “curious reader”.
Included within the collage, you will find beetles and gnawed leaves from Casper Stoll’s Natuurlyke en naar ‘t leeven naauwkeurig gekleurde afbeeldingen en beschryvingen der wantzen, in alle vier waerelds deelen Europa, Asia, Africa en America huishoudende (1788), and Edward Donovan’s, self-described “diversified assemblage of interesting objects” showcased within Natural history of the insects of China: containing upwards of two hundred and twenty figures and descriptions (1842). Having scuttled from the copper plate to the page and off again, insects from Eleazar Albin’s A natural history of English insects (1720) too.
You will find an iridescence of entomological elements from Dru Drury’s Illustrations of exotic entomology: containing upwards of six hundred and fifty figures and descriptions of foreign insects, interspersed with remarks and reflections on their nature and properties (1837); William Houghton’s Sketches of British insects: a handbook for beginners in the study of entomology (1875); James Duncan’s The natural history of beetles (1835) and The natural history of foreign butterflies (1837); R. J. Tilyard’s The insects of Australia and New Zealand (1926); M. James Thompson’s Archives entomologiques, volumes 1 and 2 (1857–1858), and more besides.
From the Australian Museum collection of minerals, we have traced outlines to form her landscape. It is comprised of Dante and Piranesi, but in the shape, now, of Azurite, Angelsite, Cuprite on Calcite, and shafts of Rhodochrosite. Because the world ‘Specimen 1963’ understands is as vast as it is, we fancy, saturated.
Our research into the Velvet ant led us to the collections of the Baillieu library, State Library Victoria (SLV), and Melbourne Museum, specifically. With terrific thanks to Susan Millard, Curator of Rare Books, at The University of Melbourne; Dr Anna Welch, Principal Collection Curator, History of the Book, State Library Victoria; and Hayley Webster, Manager, Library, Museum Victoria for showing us your collections and ensuring we remained beholden to luminous encasements and furred antennae. Thank-you for having parts of your respective collections digitised especially for this project, or providing access to earlier digitised files of the exquisiteness that lies within the casing of book covers. Thank-you, also, to your digitisation team colleagues for their work photographing, scanning, and imaging the extraordinary wealth of material within this selection of rare books pertaining to natural history with an emphasis on entomology.
In addition to the earlier sources referenced, we drew inspiration from a Book of Hours from the southern Netherlands, c.1490; and a Pontifical made for Philippe de Levis, the Bishop of Mirepoix, Paris, c. 1520, in the collection of SLV, with the fantastical insects awaiting deciphering in the marginalia. A World of Wonders Revealed by the Microscope: a book for young students with coloured illustrations by the Hon. Mrs. Ward (1859), a charm within the Baillieu, added to our understanding. Editions withing SLV, the Baillieu, and Melbourne Museum of John Abbot and Sir James Edward Smith’s The natural history of the rarer lepidopterous insects of Georgia : including their systematic characters, the particulars of their several metamorphoses, and the plants on which they feed (1797); Jacob Hübner and Carl Geyer’s Sammlung exotischer Schmetterlinge (1806); and J. O. Westwood’s Arcana entomologica; or illustrations of new, rare and interesting insects (1845) illuminated our awareness.
There are over 1.05 million insect species in the world, and you, Susan, Anna, Hayley, and Ken have shown us a great many of them. Thank-you.
Thank-you, Chus Martínez, and all at the Potter Museum of Art, for this glorious opportunity to delve into the world of the Velvet ant for as long as she’ll have us, or rather, for as long as it remains safe for us to do so; her sting is mighty, and her tale is humbling. Thank-you.
Borrowing once more from Merian, who upon the preface to The transformation of the insects of Suriname declares this as being for both ‘lovers of art’ and ‘lovers of insects’, we devote this to such lovers. May the Velvet ant be your portal to the wide beyond.
Velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) are solitary insects and they exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism. While the winged males have no sting and typically have a less conspicuous colouration than the females, the latter are wingless, actively search the ground, or trees, in some cases, for hosts and are notorious for their painful sting.
A velvet ant, a flower, and a bird.
The University of Melbourne’s Potter Museum of Art is proud to announce an ambitious new exhibition curated by internationally renowned curator Chus Martínez titled A velvet ant, a flower, and a bird.
Opening 19 February and running until 6 June 2026, the exhibition brings together works from the University of Melbourne’s Classics, Biology, and Art collections, alongside new commissions and performances by acclaimed artists from Australia and abroad.
“This exhibition can be seen as a garden of knowledge, structured around three familiar figures from nature — a velvet ant, a flower, and a bird. These figures represent a parliament of beings, each carrying symbolic and metaphorical weight that encourage us to reimagine what intelligence means”
Historic and contemporary works will be displayed in dialogue, fostering unexpected encounters between the University’s collections and contemporary practice. The exhibition invites visitors to question the divide between natural and artificial intelligence, and to see intelligence as something shared across all living systems and materials, rather than an exclusively human trait.
This expansive curatorial vision explores how museum collections can open space for new ways of reasoning. “In approaching the University’s collections outside conventional academic frameworks, I came to the idea of calling animal wisdom into account,” Martínez explains.
“Collections hold many narratives — historical, cultural, economic, material — and by bringing them into living knowledge systems, we’re able to dissolve the binary between the natural and the artificial. The visitor enters a kind of ecosystem, where objects and digital media exist without hierarchy, allowing the imagination to roam widely.”
The first of these entities is the velvet ant, which Martínez describes as “a wise being, a connoisseur of materials and renewable energies,” who represents radical adaptation — inspired by recent scientific studies into its uniquely light-absorbing structure, which could revolutionise solar technology. The flower, regarded as a “sun-fed intelligence,” symbolises perpetual renewal and adaptive creativity. The bird, inspired by Nobel Laureate Giorgio Parisi’s pioneering flocking studies, embodies “the power of collective intelligence — an emergent awareness that transcends individual cognition.”
“Chus Martínez’s visionary approach champions arts’ capacity to drive social change. Her exhibitions create space for exercising new connections and modes of awareness and encouraging meaningful dialogue across disciplines.”
Martínez adds: “At a time when fantasies of domination – technological or otherwise – threaten to upend our sense of equality, we urgently need spaces that train free thought. A relevant society is one where many forms of knowledge flourish, inspiring new languages for thinking and feeling together.”
Participating artists include: Adrian Mauriks, Agnieszka Polska, Alan Craiger-Smith, Alexa Karolinski & Ingo Niermann, Alexandra Copeland, Angela Goh, Ann Lislegaard, Anouk Tschanz, Anthony Romagnano, Barbara A Swarbrick, Benjamin Armstrong, Brent Harris, Carol Murphy, Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran, David Noonan, Derek Tumala, Din Matamoro, Eduardo Navarro, Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Harold Munkara, Heather B Swann, Helen Ganalmirriwuy Garrawurra, Helen Maudsley, Ian Wayne Abdullah, Inge King AM, Ingela Ihrman, Jane Jin Kaisen, Joan Jonas, John Pule, Josie Papialuk, Judith Pungkarta Inkamala, Julie Mensch, Kate Daw, Lauren Burrow, Liss Fenwick, Lorraine Jenyns, Malcolm Howie, Margaret Rarru Garrawurra, Marian Tubbs, Mel O’Callaghan, Mia Boe, Miles Howard-Wilks, Nabilah Nordin, Naomi Hobson, Noemi Pfister, Noriko Nakamura, Percy Grainger, Pippin Louise Drysdale, Rivane Neuenschwander & Cao Guimarães, Rosslyn Piggot, Rrikin Burarrwaŋa, Salvador Dalí, Taloi Havini, Tamara Henderson, Teelah George, Tessa Laird, and Tony Warburton.
Martínez has collaborated with exhibition designer Nguyen Le and graphic designer Ana Dominguez studio.
A series of publications, titled Art Museums Papers, authored by Chus Martínez, Laura Tripaldi, and Neha Cheksi will accompany the exhibition, offering further insights into its themes.
The exhibition will feature a vibrant public program featuring talks, performances and an opening weekend celebration with local and international artists on Friday 21 and Saturday 22 February 2026. Also built around the exhibition will be the Potter’s annual Interdisciplinary Forum under the theme of Intelligence on Saturday 9 May 2026.
This will be the second exhibition presented at the Potter since its re-opening in May 2025 following the acclaimed exhibition 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art.
Potter Museum of Art
