We sat down with eighteen-year-old Lauri Pavlovich (they/them), the youngest artist to exhibit at Science Gallery Melbourne, to chat bugs and breaking the binaries as a neurodivergent and non-binary young person.

“I guess I’m an artist now, which is really cool.”

Lauri was first introduced to Science Gallery on a school excursion as part of Year 12 psychology. Back then, MENTAL was exhibiting, a welcoming space to confront societal bias and stereotypes around mental health.

“It was an awesome exhibit, and while I was there, the lovely [lead mediator] Tess told me about the open call for BREAK THE BINARIES. I had 5 days to apply which was really stressful, but I did it! I put it together and now, like a year later I’m in the exhibition!”

Titled ‘Bugs against the binary’, Lauri’s living work presents a myriad of ways that humans can learn from the invertebrate world.

“Typically when I say that, people expect to see bugs pinned to the walls, which is very cool and I’m very into that. But I wanted this work to showcase the way things change. If somebody comes to the exhibit today, versus two months later, they’re going to see a wildly different exhibit because we’ve got plants that are growing, we’ve got bugs that are changing”.

Inside six playful dioramas are a selection of bugs that disrupt the notions we’ve built around sex, gender and sexuality. There’s a fluorescent scorpion, hermaphroditic snails and detachable penis spiders. There are giant burrowing cockroaches and feminist stick insects—all of which are native to Australia. Each tank is theatrically staged to help set the scene about the bug living inside.

“We have a tarantula in a living room with miniature couches and scorpions living under a disco ball”.

The detachable penis spider’s tank reads like a cliché romance scene, with rose petals lining the floor, a candlelit dinner and an explosion of all things pink and red.

“These spiders have these things called pedipalps, and when they mate, the male will lock his pedipalps into the female to prevent any other males from mating with her. We started thinking about this misogynistic, monogamous spider and how we could represent this in a scene. At first it looks cute and romantic, but when visitors listen to the spider’s story, it takes on a different tone”.

Beyond a lifelong appreciation for bugs, Lauri’s identity as a trans non-binary young person was instrumental in shaping the exhibit.

"Throughout my transition, I’ve seen people change their minds so rapidly when they were given a space to ask questions and feel comfortable doing so. I think the same can be said for bugs. People will see a spider on the floor and be like, GROSS! then squish it. That changes when you realise spiders are necessary and often not harmful at all. They’re not there to destroy your house, just like trans people aren’t here to destroy your society. We just want to change it and open people’s minds”.

All around us, the world is filled with insect rule breakers. As unconventional as Lauri’s selection of bugs seems at first glance, each of them is completely harmless to humans. “I wanted to show that if you can learn to love bugs, you can learn to love people”.

Visit ‘Bugs against the binary’ as part of our latest exhibition BREAK THE BINARIES, closing 17 June 2023.

Meet Our Youngest Exhibiting Artist: Lauri Pavlovich