Output details

"Making Nature" - solo presentation of twenty framed collaged drawings in June/July 2013

Making Nature is a solo presentation of artwork by Blyth, invited for exhibition at Kendal Museum (June 2013). The work is comprised of twenty framed collaged drawings that appropriate the visual aesthetic of instructional illustrations sourced from Victorian taxidermy manuals. The underpinning research challenges accepted readings of natural history museum collections. It positions itself within growing cultural interest in the field of Animal Studies (Baker, 2000; Poliquin, 2008), and the re-emergence of taxidermy in contemporary art (Snaebjornsdottir + Wilson, 2004; Morgan, 2004), using taxidermy to foreground the notion of ecological interdependency over human supremacy.

The methodology at work in this output draws on 15 years’ knowledge of the material processes and conventions of taxidermy establishing a rich and imaginative dialogue between the language of contemporary art, the craft of taxidermy and culture of museum practice. Themes of mimesis and authenticity serve to challenge the perceived authoritarianism (power relations) of the museum context, and the mediated visitor experience that marginalises particular forms of ‘reading’. The principal aim of this inquiry examines the natural history museum as a mechanism of institutionalised fiction (Preziosi, 1996), and to effect change in the way information is presented and interpreted in this context. Accepting that ‘lifelike-ness’ is no life at all, the underpinning research questions include: How can re-framing the time-honoured process of taxidermy instil new life and energy into the museum? What is the language and form of representation that will alter the conventions of interpretive media/material currently used by museums?

Kendal museum has a particular focus on nature through a predominantly Victorian collection. The exhibition is the first stage in a four-part project that subverts the conventions of museology at Kendal museum comprising a recorded conversation with curators/conservators, leading to a further exhibition and seminar discussion scheduled for April 2014.