Execution Triptych and Crawl space by New York based artist Catherine Chalmers were shown in the Tower Room at Ikon and featured animals usually considered to be pests. The Execution Triptych consists of three short pieces, depicting cockroaches variously burned at the stake, squashed and gassed. The artist explains, “I’m doing what we do with roaches: I’m executing them. But I’m not executing with a can of Raid or an exterminator. I’m executing them in the manner we execute each other.”

Crawl Space features the tight and hidden corners of a domestic environment: the spaces underneath kitchen sinks, in ventilation ducts, in the woodwork between walls and so on. Chalmers conveys the rich and busy lives of the rats and cockroaches thriving there, dramatically playing off the repulsion often felt by their human cohabitants.