Dear Zooarchers,
For interest and entertainment I am forwarding a press release about work we are doing with an artist. I am hoping to get Paul, the artist, to come along to ICAZ to talk to more of the zooarchaeological community. Also if anyone knows of similar work/projects etc do please let us know and do visit his blog....
Osteography: A Leverhulme Trust funded Artist in Residence project
Cardiff University has been awarded a prestigious grant from the Leverhulme Trust through which Senior Lecturer in Bioarchaeology Dr Jacqui Mulville and artist Paul Evans will share their practice and expertise to explore and develop new visualisations of animal osteology in a project entitled 'Osteography'.
Paul Evans will be resident within the School of History and Archaeology for 10 months and during this time will create a number of drawings of skeletal structures for exhibition within the university. He will work closely with postgraduate members of the Cardiff Osteological Research Group to explore animal form and will engage with staff and students across the University and the wider public through workshops, a blog and a website.
"The drawings that I will be making during my residency will be based on studies of animal bones", Paul says, "these drawings will vary in scale; from massive sperm whale skeletons to tiny mouse bones. Many artists have noticed the strange intrinsic beauty that is inherent in these structures, but it is through the archaeological narrative that the story of our timeless relationship to other species takes form. This residency will offer the perfect opportunity to creatively explore the connections between animal and human, biology and culture".
Further information on Paul's creative practice can be found on his web site: www.origin09.org.
Paul is also currently finalising work on an exhibition featuring drawings created by students from St Alban's RC High School, Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Plasmawr and ITEC training solutions during the Beacon for Wales funded educational outreach project 'Future Animals'. This project was led by Jacqui Mulville as a collaboration between Cardiff University School of History and Archaeology; Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales and Techniquest . The exhibition will open at Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales in February.
Also whales seem to be very popular with the art world at the moment - our grant application and Pauls' life size drawing of a sperm whale were completed months before we heard that Moby the sperm whale from the National Museum Scotland was in the UK Turner Prize exhibition.
Best wishes for a new decade.
Jacqui Mulville (PhD),
Future Friends/Future Animals
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/hisar/archaeology/futureanimals/
http://futureanimals.wordpress.com/
School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University,
Humanities Building, Colum Drive, CARDIFF, CF10 3EU
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/hisar/people/archaeology/jm1/
Tel: + 44 (0) 29 2087 4247
Fax: + 44 (0) 29 2087 4929