HUMAN impact on the environment is explored through the lives of birds in The Bowes Museum’s latest exhibition, Murmuration.
A mixture of contemporary works on loan and pieces from the museum’s own collection, the display is extremely diverse ranging from traditional sculpture and painting to extreme works of taxidermy, including a piece made up of 16 different birds.
Director of programmes Vicky Sturrs said: “This piece goes alongside an image of it and two very small newspaper reports.
“Curatorially it is really interesting because the artist doesn’t want these three pieces next to each other, they have to be across from each other and you need to discover these things.”
The positioning of the exhibits is strategic, and this item of taxidermy is set apart from the museum’s own stuffed bird collection, as well as more contemporary works, including a cormorant that has been tied down in the style of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
In similar positioning the museum’s own prints of rare species birds found locally have been placed next to Bethan Maddocks’ Twelfth Night Pie, a moving paper sculpture featuring birds, native to the north east, escaping out of a pie.
Ms Sturrs said: “This, I think, brings a sense of movement in here because what we were very conscious of was that it could feel a very static show.
“It is looking at human impact on the world and using birds as an indicator of that. We didn’t want it to feel morbid or static in that way so, while this has got a really serious ecological message behind it, it is such a beautiful piece. I love the light and I love the crafting behind it.”
While there is an obvious connection between Murmuration and the museum’s Silver Swan, the display actually takes inspiration from ornithologist, photographer and former Barnard Castle School pupil Bentley Beetham who took part in the 1924 British Mount Everest expedition.
Murmuration runs until June 23.
