Unnatural Histories
This event has now finished. Please see our events website for details of upcoming events at Brookes.
Who this event is for
Location
Abercrombie Building, The Glass Tank, Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane site
Details
Unnatural Histories, an
exhibition of fine art photography by Paul Kilsby, explores our relationship
with nature, suggesting that it is far from straightforward. Our experience of
the natural world, Kilsby proposes, is increasingly mediated by our pervasive televisual
culture. Television series by David Attenborough and others, broadcast in high
definition, always show nature at her most spectacular, often adding
exaggerated artificial sound effects and intensely dramatic music. Kilsby
argues that these immensely popular programmes have the cumulative effect of
raising our expectations to the point where everyday nature can often seem dull
and uneventful - even disappointing.
‘It sounds like heresy to criticise Attenborough as
he is rightfully regarded as such a hero of the environmentalist movement, but
I would argue that programmes like Blue Planet 2 are in many ways dramas rather
than the documentaries they purport to be. The creatures chosen are the most
spectacular, invariably engaging in the most extraordinary behaviours in the
most exotic locations.’
In
Kilsby’s photographs, birds are depicted in vivid detail seizing their prey as
though caught in car headlamps or flash. In reality, these are meticulously
constructed studio tableaux using taxidermy specimens. His strategy of
inauthenticity asks us to question our casual acceptance of the truth of
ostensibly documentary series such as Blue
Planet 2.
In
a related series, Flora Nova, also on
show, Kilsby creates hybrid flowers grafted together onto a single stem. These
take their inspiration and aesthetic from Dutch seventeenth century flower
paintings which sometimes show flowers blooming simultaneously which, in
reality, flower only in different seasons. Kilsby explains that the images
offer a critique of the headlong pursuit of ostensibly ‘bigger and better’
flowers in the huge and lucrative horticultural industry, achieved through
increasingly routine use of invasive genetic modification, cloning and hybridisation. Again,
‘natural nature’ is characterised as somehow inadequate to meet our insatiable
desire for a vivid, hyperbolic version of the natural world.
Unnatural Histories will be open
from Thursday 5th April until Thursday 3rd May in the
Glass Tank. The Glass Tank can be found in the Abercrombie Building on
Headington Campus at Oxford Brookes University. Admission to the exhibition is
free and open to all members of the public. A book of Kilsby’s
photographs, Unnatural Histories,
with an introductory essay by James Attlee, will be available to purchase for
£9.95 at Blackwell’s Book Store on Headington Campus. You can view UNNATURAL
HISTORIES ONLINE .
On Tuesday 10th April Paul will be
giving a talk to discuss Unnatural
Histories in the Glass Tank. To make sure you do not miss out on this
event, please register your attendance through: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brookes-fine-art-research-talk-paul-kilsby-unnatural-histories-tickets-44139488398
The private view
for this event will be taking place on Thursday 5 April between 6-8pm. To RSVP
to this event or to ask any questions about Unnatural
Histories, please send an email to glasstank@brookes.ac.uk.