A DELIBERATELY provocative exhibition which uses real blood and saliva to challenge the position of humans at the top of the evolutionary ladder has opened at Warrington Museum.
Pamela Schilderman’s Ecology NOW also features the Dutch-Brazilian artist’s own tooth and fingernails to spark conversations about the urgent need for conservation and action with many animals under threat of extinction.
By pairing forensic identifiers – for example her blood with a Gregorian fan coral, her saliva with a water flea, her fingernails with an elephant – Pamelaasks visitors to consider whether humans are really the most important
species on Earth today?
The exhibition has a gentler side though. Alongside the challenging sculptures are charming Indian ink, Biro and pencil sketches of animals like capybaras and toucans in unusual settings or encroaching on human territory.
Producer Roger Jeffery, from Warrington Museum and Art Gallery, said: “Pamela Schilderman’s thought-provoking Ecology NOW sits neatly alongside another of our current exhibitions, Wake Me Up Before You Dodo.
“They both explore animals at risk of extinction and the need for action from different angles, and although Pamela’s work can be challenging there is a lot to take from it.”
Pamela was born in Rotterdam and lived in Rwanda before moving to the UK at the age of five. Since graduating from Goldsmiths University in 2004, she has exhibited nationally and completed residencies in France, Holland, Wales and Finland.
The artist’s Ecology NOW is in collaboration with the University of Birmingham and the Lapworth Museum, with support from Arts Council England.
Peter Knott, from Arts Council England, added: “We’re really pleased to be supporting this project through National Lottery funding, and it’s great to see Pamela’s work bringing history, science and art together.
“Creativity has to power to help us make sense of the world and to explore important, pertinent environmental issues, and I am sure this work will inspire many people.”
Ecology NOW is free to view and is at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery until September 24.
