That, for some years now, the Wunderkammer, or cabinet of curiosity, has been attracting the attention of artists, curators and art historians, may have something to do with its non-hierarchical, encyclopedic approach to the world. Exhibiting side-by-side objects from geology, natural history, archaeology or contemporary art, the Wunderkammer, equating the natural and the man-made, opens up analogical readings unrestrained by modern science categories.

Unnatural esoteric at the Galway Arts Centre presented over two floors suits the Georgian grandeur of the building with its references to the Victorian wunderkammer, the eighteenth-century cabinet of curiosities, the precursor to the modern museum. The exhibition carries a narrative structure beginning with documentary-style photographs from The Franke Foundation in Halle, Germany, ranging to sculptural objects where Louise Manifold creates a series of vitrines displaying the curiosities of her own personal wunderkammer. Three video works occupy the stairwell and first floor. The exhibition  develops from the documentary to the interpretative and the work gets progressively stronger and more assured as the viewer moves through the building.