What it is like to be what you are not

Rosemarie Trockel’s portfolio of eight photogravures What it is like to be what you are not portrays the webs spun by spiders which had been exposed to a variety of drugs. The series is based on an Austrian 19th century scientists’ who studied spiders’ activity and the affect on the shape of the spiders’ web under the influence of substances like caffeine, mescalin or LSD.
Working at the intersection of art and scientific experimentation, Trockel allows us to be immersed in the delicate architectural structures of the spiderwebs, to trace their patterns for irregularities and deviations, to marvel at their beauty and complexity, or to ponder the human impact on nature itself.