Alf

Hand-painted acrylic on Jesmonite resin cast from an original stone carving.

53cm x 32cm x 23cm. Base: 7cm x 26cm x 11cm.

SOLD

This piece is inspired by the life and work of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 - 1913), one of the 19th century's most remarkable intellectuals, jointly publishing the theory of evolution by natural selection with Charles Darwin in 1858, amongst many other contributions to biology and beyond. Since his death his intellectual legacy has been overshadowed by Darwin’s, and as a result many of the important contributions made by Darwin’s contemporaries, like Wallace, are currently underestimated and undervalued.

‘Alf’ features images from his book ‘The Malay Archipelago’ (which was apparently Joseph Conrad’s favourite bedside reading) along with his giant bee, Chalicodoma [Megachile] Pluto, the world’s biggest bee.