CASE FILE: A Series of Unfortunate Findings

December 13, 2011 – Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Recovered Materials from an Unidentified Extraterrestrial Investigation

What begins as a familiar crime scene slowly transforms into something far more unsettling. A Series of Unfortunate Findings invites visitors to step into the role of investigators examining evidence recovered after authorities discovered what appeared to be an abandoned spacecraft hidden in the woods.

The installation reconstructs the official findings through four interconnected environments. A laboratory suggests experiments in artificial human creation, where preserved forms and infant-like faces raise unsettling questions about identity and replication. An experimental control station hints at procedures performed on unwilling human subjects, reducing the body to an object of scientific observation. Nearby, a mysterious resting chamber reveals traces of an unseen extraterrestrial presence, while the final scene documents the aftermath of the encounter, an isolated campsite where evidence suggests that two missing individuals met a tragic fate.

Rather than depicting an alien invasion through spectacle, the work borrows the visual language of forensic investigation, allowing ordinary objects, fabricated evidence, and environmental storytelling to blur the boundary between fiction and documented reality. Visitors are encouraged to assemble the narrative themselves, much as detectives reconstruct events from fragments left behind.

The installation explores themes of fear of the unknown, government secrecy, scientific ethics, and humanity's enduring fascination with extraterrestrial life. It also reflects on how easily carefully arranged evidence can shape belief, reminding us that our understanding of truth often depends on the stories we construct from incomplete information.

As you leave the gallery, one question remains unresolved:

If the investigators never found the occupant of the spacecraft… who is observing whom?

Within the Museum of Me, A Series of Unfortunate Findings represents the artist's fascination with immersive storytelling and world-building. Throughout her career, she has explored painting, sculpture, fashion, music, product design, and installation art as different languages for expressing the imagination. This gallery demonstrates her desire to transform narrative into a physical experience, inviting visitors to become active participants rather than passive observers. By combining sculpture, lighting, sound, performance, and fictional documentation, the installation reveals another dimension of her creative practice, one where mystery, humor, suspense, and psychological curiosity converge. It reflects the museum's mission to present not only finished works of art, but also the ideas, experiments, and imaginative universes that have shaped the artist's lifelong creative journey.