Rebecca Jewell: Birds Becoming Artefacts

Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery

2a Conway Street, Fitzroy Square, London W1T 6BA, UK

23 November – 24 December 2011

Birds Becoming Artefacts explores how birds have been used by cultures from all over the world to enhance the beauty and wisdom of humans. The title of the show reflects on the dual meaning of the word ‘becoming’ – how birds are ‘turned into’ artefacts and how birds ‘make artefacts beautiful’. For example, in Papua New Guinea, the Highlanders wear the bird of paradise feathers to attain the beautiful qualities of the bird. In Jewell’s artistic world, the wearer of Lear’s Headdress would acquire Edward Lear’s wit and artistic talent and the beauty and wisdom of the parrots he painted; and the wearer of Owl Cape would absorb the wisdom of the owl.

Rebecca has perfected a technique for printing images directly onto feathers, and she has made these into new artefacts inspired by the British Museum Pacific collections. The show display prints, wall-paper, artefacts and cabinets of gilded labels and feathers. Rebecca’s artwork, Lear’s Headdress has been shortlisted for the 2011 Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize in Australia.

The Heart of the Great Alone: Scott, Shackleton and Antarctic Photography
The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London

21 October 2011 - 15 April 2012

Ponting’s extraordinary images record Scott’s Terra Nova expedition of 1910-13. Hurley’s dramatic icescapes were taken during Ernest Shackleton’s Polar expedition on Endurance in 1914-16, which included the heroic sea journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia. Presented to King George V and today part of the Royal Collection, these sets of photographs are among the finest examples of the artists’ works in existence. Check the website www.royalcollection.org.uk  for opening times.

Isaac Newton (1643–1727) and Newtonianism:
Popularisation and canonisation via the medium of print

An exhibition of Whipple Library books curated by HPS Part II students: Anne Carter, Natalie Christie, Alastair Cliff and Nick Goodwin. Assisted by Jenny Rampling, Simon Schaffer and Tim Eggington.

This is an online version of an exhibition of Whipple Library books, displayed in summer 2011. Following brainstorming sessions with Professor Simon Schaffer, our student curators (led by Jenny Rampling) used Whipple Library rare books to show the diverse modes through which the idea of Newton and Newtonianism permeated 18th-century thinking, via books and publishing. Within the confines of our small Library display cases four significant themes were identified in children's literature, popular science, fashion and academia. These indicate just some of the settings and agendas in which the name and work of Newton was promoted, appropriated and presented to 18th- and 19th-century readers.

Natural History of Edward Lear,  Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

2 – 18 August 2012

Although he is best remembered today as a whimsical nonsense poet, adventurous traveller, and painter of luminous landscapes, Edward Lear is revered in scientific circles as one of the greatest natural history painters of all time. During his brief immersion in the world of science, he created a body of work that continues to inform, delight, and astonish us with its remarkable blend of scientific rigor and artistic finesse.

Thanks to the generosity of two discerning Harvard benefactors, Philip Hofer and William B. Osgood Field, the Houghton Library holds the largest and most complete collection of Edward Lear’s original paintings in the world.  Among the thousands of items in this collection are some two hundred sketches, studies, and finished paintings devoted to natural history. This exhibition, commemorating the bicentennial of Lear’s birth, is the first devoted to this important aspect of his career. The exhibition is being curated by Robert McCracken Peck, Senior Fellow at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (Drexel University).

Image: Edward Lear, Study of an Indigo Macaw, now known as Lear’s Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari), watercolour on paper (Houghton Library, MS Typ 55.9 (22)).