Möller’s inventory of painted forms is cast in different hues with shimmering backgrounds. Surrounded by dappled aqueous fluids, these delicate microorganisms hover in amorphous space: a sense of movement and suspension is conveyed. Bereft of context, Möller’s diminutive specimens appear as marine creatures swamped by a hallucinatory and intriguing underworld. Philipinum, with its dappled, camouflage background is like a coral formation from the Great Barrier Reef whereas Millilium is adrift in a lurid haze. In the surrealist manner of combining unlikely elements and the scientific enterprise of naming species, titles add both absurd humour and mystery to Möller’s suite of prototypes.”
Natalie King
Melbourne based curator writer and broadcaster
Extract from 2006 catalogue
Image: Vera Möller – ‘liquilumber’ (2013) oil on linen, 200 x 168 cm
