Electric Works is pleased to present Scott Serrano's "Picturesque Flora Wallaceana: Botanical Ambulations In Greater Wallaceana 1854- 1857" a fabricated 19th Century science narrative about the tropical island of Wallaceana as an installation of images, text and artifacts. This invented landscape is named after the great 19th Century naturalist and scientist Alfred Russell Wallace, the lesser known co-discoverer of the theory of evolution. Serrano places himself as a character in the narrative and documents the terrain with drawings, travel journals, artifacts, faux plant specimens and fabricated photographs.
In an homage to 19th Century traditions of botanical exploration and in a critique of objective scientific representation, Serrano uses his invented island to illustrate a series of brief parables about modern human moral frailty and current social-political battles. Serrano's lavish botanical drawings are in the style of Gothic- Romantic traditions of painting and scientific illustration.
After traditional art training at San Jose State University and San Francisco State University, Serrano gravitated to performance art. His complex masked puppetry works were presented at The Cleveland Performance Art Festival, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Cherry Creek Arts Festival (Colorado), and Jim Henson Puppetry Festival, New York. His puppetry/ masked work culminated in "Anatomical Demonstrations", a 19th Century period lecture that received an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts grant for a residency at the Exploratorium. His interest in the creation of parallel universes led to his current work with the re-creation of 19th Century objects and installations that have been featured at the Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York, Samuel Dorsky Museum at the State University of New Paltz, New York and at Cabrillo College Gallery.