Interspecies opens

Interspecies opened on Fri 23rd, to a massive reception from art and animal lovers alike. The three galleries were busy for the 3 hour opening, with families settling down in the seating installed in Nicolas Primat's space - conveniently located next to the temporary bar.


Antony Hall's ENKI experiment 3 promised to allow human visitors to 'communicate' with a breed of electric fish called Black Knife Ghost Fish. The elaborate looking set-up - involving head set, goggles, finger sensors, oscilloscope - was confidently handled by the gallery assistants. Only one participant at a time can be 'pluged-in'.

Outside the experiment cabin, other visitors can see the live results as they scrolled across a computer screen and several monitors.

The fish can also be viewed through a window built into the second half of the cabin.

Kira O'Reilly's piece 'Falling Asleep With A Pig' began with a 36 hour performance, during which time Delia - a Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pig - lived with Kira inside a specially built enclosure within Gallery three. The whole performance was filmed, and the resulting video can now be seen were the performance took place.

The performance was so popular that the 4 person-at-a-time maximum resulted in queue stretching around the top floor stairwell.

Rachael Mayeri's double projection involves witty observations on the similarity between human and primate courtship rituals.