The exhibition of works by international naturalists and artists will explore the role of the artist as an intrinsic part of the science of natural history, enabling our modern understanding of ecology, climate change, extinction and the threats to biodiversity.
UnNatural History features over 20 international artists from Belgium, Germany, India, Ireland, Kenya, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Turkey, UK and USA, including four newly commissioned works responding to the Herbert’s Natural Science Collection by Frances Disley, Dubmorphology, Tania Kovats and Gözde İlkin.
The observational skills and techniques of artists, including their speculations, have enabled us to learn about plants and animals in drawings, long before the advancements of technologies such as microscopes and photography. Featuring drawings, paintings, sculpture, installation, lens-based, digital media and new technologies, UnNatural History will connect these valuable collections to the past, present, and future of our relationship to nature through depictions, scientific representations and imagined realities created by artists.
Confirmed Artists: Christina Agapakis, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg & Sissel Tolaas / Doug Aitken / Angela Brazil / Gerard Byrne / David Claerbout / Mat Collishaw / Dorothy Cross / Frances Disley / Dubmorphology / John Gerrard / Alex Hartley / Andy Holden / Gözde İlkin / Tania Kovats / Michael Landy / Tony Matelli / Wangechi Mutu / Marianne North / Calvin Pang with David Robinson / Raqs Media Collective / Lisa Reihana / Sonya Schönberger / Yinka Shonibare CBE / Sarah Sze / Francis Upritchard / Danh V