Natural Selection is the beautiful and thought-provoking result of a five-year collaboration between artist Andy Holden and his father, the well-known ornithologist Peter Holden.
Birds – and the human fascination with their habits and habitats – are at the heart of the exhibition which includes film, sculpture, photographs and animation. The origin of this commission lies in his Peter Holden’s authority in the fields of natural history and ornithology. Peter Holden worked for the RSPB for 45 years, building the Young Ornithologist Club, which Andy Holden joined as a boy, into the largest wildlife club in the world. He also regularly featured as ‘the bird man’ on BBC’s Blue Peter.
The exhibition is co-commissioned and supported by Artangel, an organisation that produces and presents extraordinary art in unexpected places in London, across the UK and around the world. Thanks to funding from the National Lottery through Creative Scotland the exhibition will tour to Shetland, Arbroath, and Inverness throughout 2019 following a successful show at Inverleith House in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh.
In Shetland the project has received generous support from The Sullom Voe Association Ltd and Lerwick Community Council, with additional transport support from Northlink Ferries. Shetland Arts is working in partnership with SIC to enable the exhibition to be staged in the old Anderson High School at The Knab in Lerwick ahead of the site’s redevelopment.
Jane Matthews, Exhibition Manager at Shetland Arts explains, “It’s so fantastic to be able to bring work of this calibre to Shetland, and to bring the old school back to life for the duration of the show. The setting is perfect for this beautiful and beguiling exhibition that explores characteristics in birdlife that are innate or inherited, from nest building to egg laying, in an exquisite way that both delights and educates in spades. It’s a show for young and old alike and we are so grateful for all the support that has enabled us to host it”.
