D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum Exhibitions

Please note - this site only lists exhibitions in the Zoology Museum itself - visit our general Exhibitions page for shows held elsewhere.

David Blyth + Nick Gordon - The Gaff

An exhibition in the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum

8 - 29 June 2018, Fridays 2 - 4.30pm

‌The Gaff has been created by Scottish artists David Blyth and Nick Gordon, inspired by the preserved specimens in D’Arcy Thompson’s collection. Their playful response to this visionary man of science features a range of sculptural works that explore ideas of material culture and the accepted codes of the museum experience.

David Blyth is based in Aberdeenshire and teaches at Gray’s School of Art. His work involves the craft skills of taxidermy to draw upon narratives of Scottish folklore, shamanism and human-animal relations. Nick Gordon is based in Orkney, where he works as a technician at Soulisquoy Printmakers in Stromness. His work uses mixed media collage to explore our relationship with the environment. His work is a contemporary reflection of the cognitive processes of collecting, arranging, displaying and analysing.

Find out more here.

Botanica Mathematica

An exhibition in the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum

2 - 30 June 2017, Fridays 2-4.30pm

Botanica Mathematica is a textile taxonomy of mathematically-inspired plant forms. Its creators, Julia Collins and Madeleine Shepherd, have combined ideas from D’Arcy Thompson’s On Growth and Form, computer science, fractals and hyperbolic geometry. The specimen collection consists mainly of crowd-sourced contributions of Binary Bonsai trees. Generative instructions and algorithmic knitting patterns are the genetic code of these creations; textile techniques are their metabolism. These patterns were released into the wild to evolve and change as makers around the world interpreted them. The elegant structures, rich textures and fascinating patterns that arise have been collected and classified, with the aid of taxonomist Jo Macrae, as if they were specimens in a botanical herbarium. As well as the Binary Bonsai collection, this exhibit includes Fibonacci Flowers and Hyperbolic Chanterelles which will form the basis of an accompanying workshop on 18 June.

Visit the Botanica Mathematica website for more.

Pole Tay Pole

D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum

Carnelley Building, University of Dundee

Preview on Friday 12 February 2016, 5.30-7pm

Open day on Sunday 14 February 2016, 11am-4pm

Level 3 Illustration students from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design present a selection of artworks inspired by Dundee's historic connections with polar exploration and whaling.

Acts of Displacement

an exhibition by Master of Fine Art students in the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum

18 January - 2 March 2013

To accompany the exhibitions Unnatural Wonders and "Drawn from Structures Living and Dead", the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum is playing host to the Master of Fine Art students from DJCAD, who have created site-specific artworks and installation pieces in response to this amazing venue. Their work can be seen on Fri 18 Jan 6.30-8pm in the Zoology Museum, Carnelley Building, and on other special openings on 2 February and 2 March. Click here for more information.