Join UWindsor arts professor and Ontario Culture Days creative-in-residence, Jennifer Willet, for a pop-up exhibition at ArtSpeak Gallery, 1942 Wyandotte St. E. The exhibition runs from Sept. 29 to Oct. 13.

Gentleman Scientist: Microecologies is a 360° diorama installation installed on a sewing mannequin, which serves as a portrait of a character and a garment as it moves through ecologies and time, all the while accruing microbes and meaning — literal and metaphorical passengers.

Dr. Willet’s performative alter ego, the Gentleman Scientist, is an entertaining and gender fluid critique of the Western tradition of scientific rationality: a ringmaster, a specialist, a time traveler, a buffoon, whose once white coat is filthy. He has eight snow globes attached to the front and back like mutant breasts or egg sacs. Within each snow globe live colonies of microorganisms, bacteria, yeast, algae. They are fascinating, beautiful, and putrid.

The installation is presented in conjunction with a “Baroque Biology” community event and science fair at Point Pelee National Park on Sunday, Oct. 6. A tour bus will take folks from ArtSpeak to the Point Pelee event.

Baroque Biology is for audiences of all ages. Over the course of one day, through experimentation, storytelling, sculpture, parades, and performance, Willet and special guests will invite park-goers to learn more about the Great Lakes ecology. Activities will include an artist presentation, hands-on workshop activities, artworks and scientific displays, live music, and a parade.

Willet is a Canada Research Chair in Art, Science, and Ecology; and the director of Incubator ArtLab. Baroque Biology is commissioned as part of Ontario Culture Days, a national celebration of arts and culture.