Annie Ratti’s practice for some years has been concerned with what the ecologist and philosopher David Abrams has termed 'the more-than-human world', composed of other animals, plants, soils and ecosystems. For this latest project, first exhibited at WIELS in Brussels last year, she turns to the topic of extinction.
The project began with Ratti making a register of all the names of the extinct creatures she could find through her extensive research. Many of the species were lost before any systematic recording of the animals was in place (it is fortuitous that there are images of the lost Dodo or Tasmanian Tiger, for instance). In this exhibition Ratti presents a series of sculptures consisting of banner-like felt tapestries hung from metal armatures. The tapestries feature colourful layered shapes based on archival images of extinct animal species. Ratti’s aim was to evoke the animals without representing them explicitly. She makes the cutout felt parts by overlapping positive and negative forms taken from the found images of the animals, translating their presence through fragments of their silhouettes. On the monochrome side of the banner Linnaean designations for each animal (mergus australus, panthera tigris virgata, notomys longicaudata etc.) are loose-stitched into the felt in Ratti's lower-case non-cursive hand.
Lamps made from refurbished public-lighting systems form another element of the sculptures. Some are from the old Spitafield market where they were used to light butchered animals. The lamps underline the commemorative aspect of the work - spotlighting the names and shadowy shapes evoking the lost species. Some of the lights stand alone as sculptures on wheels invoking a stage - an active form of illumination suggesting that the sculptures not only present a ghostly presence of lost species but remind us of the active ongoing process needed to preserve those species in danger.
Aby Warburg theorized that images never truly die: they survive in transformed forms, migrating across eras and cultures. In this project, images of extinct animals are not mere records of the past; they become tools to activate a continually transforming collective memory. Annie Ratti 2026
Annie Ratti (b.1956, Switzerland) is an Italian artist based in London. Her transdisciplinary research-based practice addresses specific geographical, historical and social issues to confront political contemporary emergencies related to the aims of science, culture and ecology.
Selected recent exhibitions includeAd Occhi Chiusi(with Bruna Esposito), Villa Mondolfo, Como (2026),Magical Realism: Imagining Natural Dis/order, WIELS, Brussels (2025);Sacred Landscapes, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, 18th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice (2023);A Century of the Artist’s Studio: 1920–2020, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2022);Bombyx Mori, Amanda Wilkinson Gallery, London (2022);ANARGONIA, Amanda Wilkinson Gallery, London (2019);Lallazioni(with Bruna Esposito), Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone, Rome (2015); The Shroom Project, Kabinetten van de Vleeshal, Middelburg (2013);Image of September, Gallery Sejul, Seoul (2010);Annie Ratti: Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt, KUB-Billboards, Kunsthaus Bregenz (2006); andAnnie Ratti – Objects, Vorarlberger Kunstverein Magazin 4, Bregenz (1997).
