Darlings of the Underground at Subsidiary Projects
Curated by Martin Mayorga and Vanessa Murrell, in collaboration with Anna Souter
Exhibition 1-8 March 2019 | Opening event 1 March 2019, 6-9pm

We live in close proximity to other organisms; from caged pets to wild animals, window boxes to weeds. And there are those other living things – yeasts, bacteria, moulds – that float invisible through the air we breathe, or grow on our skin and in our stomachs, parasites that are essential to human lives. City dwellers try block out these living actors that survive, adapt, and thrive throughout the urban environment. Air conditioning, double-glazing, anti-bacterial spray. Conspiracy to control, ignoring the interdependence of human and non-human lives.

‘Darlings of the Underground’, seeks to foreground these overlooked and sidelined relationships, drawing attention to human encounters with organisms designated ‘other’ to ourselves by the categories enforced by science and classical philosophy.

These forces of the ‘underground’ resist dominant models of how we define the human in opposition to everything else, and challenge the concept of the self-contained individual. The domestic setting of Subsidiary Projects is used to highlight the fact that these plants, animals, and bacteria are always present – species are interpenetrated, lives are interwoven – even in contexts where we feel uncomfortable encountering the wild.

PRESS:
“The genuine commitment to understanding the underside of urban wildlife and habitation shown by the curators is rather inspiring, and hints at a new age of artists and curators assuming the role of an orator, telling the stories of otherwise unheard voices.” – Review by Issey Scott

“Darlings of the Underground was truly multidisciplinary and showcased the talent of a wide variety of artists at different stages of their career. I went away thinking differently about my own relationship to the spaces I inhabit.” – Review by Charlie Siddick

Mentioned in ‘On Subsidiary Projects‘ by Natalia Gonzalez Martin, Assemblage Magazine

Subsidiary Projects, 28 Bonnington Square, SW8 1TQ, London.
Full press release: dateagle.art/darlings-of-the-underground/