Perforated Protection:
Mysterious Worldwide Frog Extinctions

Artist: Oscar Furbacken

Scientists: Lee Berger, Danielle Wallace, Jamie Voyles

Curators: Feifei Zhou, Anna L. Tzing

This project aims to visually explore the amphibian tragedy caused by a tiny fungus that became the worst invasive disease of all time. The artworks are created by Swedish artist Oscar Furbacken in collaboration with Australian researchers Lee Berger, Danielle Wallace as well as Jamie Voyles.

In the 1970s, trade and globalisation  enabled  the tiny Bd-fungus to spread to new continents thus causing a global pandemic of skin disease among sensitive frogs, toads and salamanders. Since then, about 90 species have become extinct and still today many seriously endangered amphibians rely on conservation interventions to persist.

As mass deaths occurred unobserved in remote mountains, and the Bd-fungi are extremely small and transparent  it took decades before the mystery of frog declines  was finally solved in 1998.

Some of the art pieces utilize glass as a material to convey the fascinating ingenuity of the feared Bd-fungi. The ”floating” globe-clusters are designed to optically shrink the surrounding space like fish eye lenses, turning them into little microcosms.

During the artistic process we looked at the iconic gastric brooding frog and others extinct species but there was an image of a baby Southern Corroboree frog that really moved us. The wall projection at the back is a 1000:1 version of a scientific image from the little frog specimen, carefully documented by American researcher Jamie Voyles.

The perforation caused by fungi-tubes piercing the skin was especially visible on one front toe. It is this little toe that gave shape to the monolithic installation, here seemingly fossilized, hinting towards timespans far beyond that of humanity. And as a memorial for the magnitude of this biodiversity loss, we find engraved at the back of the piece the names of each extinct amphibian species to date.

Furbacken’s piece as described above is part of the FUNGI: Anarchist Designers exhibition which features works by the following researchers, designers and visual artists:

Animali Domestici, Phil Ayres, Baum & Leahy, Lee Berger, Berkveldt, Frank Bruggeman, Maia Cruz Palileo, David Dunn, Rob Dunn, Wim van Egmond, Olafur Eliasson, Lizan Freijsen, Toshimitsu Fukiharu, Oscar Furbacken, Matteo Garbelotto, Jacob Hoving, Kyriaki Goni, Filipp Groubnov, Zachary Hajian-Forooshani, Hajime Imamura, Klaas Kuitenbrouwer, Marloes en Wikke, Laure Nolte, Alyssa Paredes, Ivette Perfecto, Michael Poulsen, Maria Saeki, Shiho Satsuka, Åsa Sonjasdotter, Bettina Stoetzer, Time Lapse Vision Inc., Maud Vervenne, Jamie Voyles, Danielle Wallace, John Waters, Anicka Yi, Liu Yi.

“An intriguing, mossy mountain towers above visitors at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. The green surface shows all kinds of patterns and holes, allowing you to look inside, where you see mysterious green cavities.”

/ Janna Reinsma

(excerpt from review of Furbacken’s piece in de Volkskrant, National Press of Netherlands)

For valuable support and a fun collaboration, thanks to:

Rasmus Nossbring (for amazing glass blowing), Juliette Mout (for great sculpting and assistance on site), Hans VonTrapp (for 3d-scanning, modelling, engraving…), Bouwko Landstra (installation, planning) and to Lee Berger, Danielle Wallace and Jamie Voyles for your valuable thoughts, images and research!

Thanks also to the fantastic museum team of Nieuwe Instituut:

Arianne van der Veen, Flora va Gaalen, Charly Bödel, Elena Genesio, Silvia Laurelli, Peer Thielen and many more!