When Talya Rubin was little, she would tell adults she wanted to be ‘a ballerina and a gorilla’ when she grew up. Zoology is a performance lecture and dance work for one woman and two children that attempts to live up to that childhood dream.

Zoology was inspired by slides found in a New York City antique shop of zoo animals in vibrant 1980s Ektachrome colours.

In the work, the animals tell their wordless story of extinction through movement that has absurdity and poignancy at its core.

There is a dream-like lecture at the centre of Zoology. It riffs on zoos, panda diplomacy, The Wizard of Oz, extinction and Talya’s own childhood.

A world premiere, presented by Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts and set within WA Museum Boola Bardip, Zoology provokes a deep, visceral reconnection with our inner wildness and invites us to sit in the unresolved spaces of the current extinction crisis.

Content Warning: Strobing images, some sudden loud sounds, flashing lights and subject matter of extinction and loss.