Thursday, January 22, 2009

Marcus Coates: "The Animal Gaze" Centre for Contemporary Art and The Natural World, Exeter, UK



The Animal Gaze

Artists: Suky Best, Roz Cran, Matilda Downs, Tessa Farmer, Hayden Fowler, Aurelia Mihai, Nicola Oxley, Andrea Roe,
Claire Rousell, Clara S Rueprich, Helen Sears and Miranda Whall.

24 January – 22 March 2009

The Animal Gaze is a contemporary art exhibition that explores the complex relationships between animals and humans. It features the work of over 40 international artists at four exhibition venues in Plymouth; and at CCANW near Exeter.

This exhibition is also part of Darwin200, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Darwin and marking 150 years since On the Origin of Species was published. Darwin’s concept of the evolution of species through natural selection revolutionised our understanding of nature and our place within it. The city of Plymouth itself has particular relevance since Darwin’s most influential voyage of discovery, onboard the HMS Beagle, set sail from Devonport, Plymouth, on 27 December 1831.

The exhibition’s curator Rosemarie McGoldrick explains: “The Animal Gaze is an exhibition showing how animals currently appear in Western contemporary art. The work has been selected, from a range of national and international artists, for its new approach to animals, taking into account ethics, politics and aesthetics.”

Plymouth Visual Arts Consortium and CCANW have brought this exhibition to the South West and it includes an associated commission by Groundwork UK South West. The Animal Gaze is a London Metropolitan University event organised and curated by Rosemarie McGoldrick.

Other elements of The Animal Gaze exhibition are on show on selected dates between January and May 2009 at Plymouth College of Art; Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery; Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World at Haldon Forest Park, Exeter; and Peninsula Arts Gallery at the Roland Levinsky Gallery, University of Plymouth.

image:
Marcus Coates
Goshawk (Self Portrait)
1999
Archival Inkjet Print
MC0001
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK