The Gaff

An exhibition by David Blyth + Nick Gordon

D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum

Carnelley Building, University of Dundee

8 – 29 June 2018, open Fridays 2-4.30pm

Welcome to The Gaff. Inspired by the preserved vestiges of D’Arcy Thompson’s personal collection, Scottish artists David Blyth and Nick Gordon pay homage to this visionary man of Natural Science through playful response to the superb displays at The D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum, Dundee. With reference to Thompson’s seminal book, On Growth and Form, the exhibition showcases individual sculptural works by each artist unified through their interrogation of ‘material culture’ and the accepted codes of the museum experience. ‘Behave, you Animal!’

In fact, it was a mutual interest in D’Arcy Thompson’s book that brought both artists together for this collaborative exhibition. As well as their shared critique of human-animal relations in post-human landscapes and object-orientated ontological perspectives, in this exhibition Blyth and Gordon take a post-digital breath and observe quite how far we’ve travelled. The two artists introduce new artworks into the historical collection to challenge the conventions of taxonomy and explore alternative connections and contexts to release new ideas from the zoological specimens within the D’Arcy Thompson collection.

The Gaff seeks to breathe new life into the museum experience by encouraging a different set of questions about the natural world and our perceptual understanding of what this means today.