
Iris sibirica
Brett Couch
Museums are places of memory. In the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, every specimen in the hundred-year-old collection holds a history: of its own life, the people associated with it, and its evolutionary record stretching back through eons.
These memories are kept alive by the community around the museum: its researchers, faculty, staff, students, and volunteers.
This community’s commitment to biodiversity takes many forms, often in creative expression. Science and art were never mutually exclusive.
Showcasing these works celebrates the Beaty Biodiversity Museum’s first ten public years, and is a reminder that the museum is a place of recollection, of creativity, and of dreams.
How is a painting of a flower different from a flower? In mediating the image of an organism, the artist creates a distance from the physical thing itself. This distance creates space for meaning to be read into the deliberate placement of every line. The combination of subjects holds value, as does the selection of media, colour, and scale. An image is a symbol, what does it mean to you?
To record patterns of light through mechanical means seems impartial, but a multitude of decisions go into the construction of a photographic image.
A photograph may be so specific that they can serve as a digital collection record of where and when an organism occurs. Or a photograph can be as abstract and evocative as any work of art. What does each photograph tell you?
Drawing an organism to record what it is, and how it is different from similar forms is an ancient practice and one that is still used today. Drawing allows for characteristics to be isolated, emphasized, and compared clearly and simply. To name and describe species in accordance with international conventions is the science of taxonomy. What do you think is emphasized in these drawings that a photograph might not reveal?
The natural world has been a source of inspiration for artists since the earliest works of art. People will always read living forms into abstract shapes, and spin stories from a single image. Nature will always be the refuge, the adversary, the trickster, the mother, the self. Humanity needs intact ecosystems for many reasons, and not least as a space for our collective imaginations to escape, to remember our role as one species among many on a planet filled with wonder. What inspires you?
Iris sibirica
Brett Couch
Grief Over Covid-19
Jen Burgess
Cherry Blossoms
Mary O'connor
American Wigeon (Mareca americana) and Otter (Lutra canadensis)
Beatriz Martin
Bouquet of Genes
Sylvia Heredia
Salal, Nurse Logs, and a Million Other Microcosms
Ailsa McFadyen-Mungall
Stromatolite and Cyanobacteria
Hanson Wong
Beauty on the Brink
Quinn McCallum
Heart Bleeding
Derek Tan
Fungal Spores
Linda Horianopoulos
The Bees and the Moths
Thanushi Eagalle
Proclaiming Ownership of the Hazelnut Bush
Harold Eyster
Hope for Burrowing Owls
Michelle Pang
Life Lessons from the Odd and Ancient
Isaac Yuen
Hare
Faith Jones
La Luz de Tus Ojos
Gabriela Barragan
Trichonympha
Erick James
Bycatch
Zaynah Khan
Copepod Plates
Ildiko Szabo
Jumping Spider Illustrations, 1974-2020
Wayne Maddison
Magnifying Biodiversity
Cathy Yan
Sunny Days
Sam Matys
Velella velella
Amanda Smith
Elephants and a Bird in a Forest
Keerthikrutha Seetharaman
Capturing Equitable Patterns in Nature
Cassandra Elphinstone
Biomemories
Amelia Choy
A View of the Forest, Ecuador
Jenny Munoz
Colours of the Swamp Guppy
Wouter van der Bijl
Big Blue
Jennifer Losie
Arctic Flowering Plant Diversity
Zoe Panchen
Eagles
Catherine Salinas
Strawberry Poison Frog Tadpole Development
Virginia Noble
A Giant Green Anemone Fucus Vase
Alyssa Gehman
Flutter
Adrian Dwiputra
Bioluminescence
Philippe Roberge
Sea Anemone
Patrick Keeling
Escaping Landwards from a Too Curious Snorkeler
Nicolas Bailly
A Colourful Cicadellid
Elisabeth Bergman
Hidden Landscapes
Colin MacLeod
Urn for Coral Reefs
Lesha Koop
Sea Silk Waves
Sheila Byers
For LRH
Simi Wei
Trickery of Wing
Sydney Honsberger-Grant
Guardian of the Ocean
Lauren Gill
REMEMBERING: LOST WORDS
Anita Miettunen
Nothern Flicker
Keely Hammond
HUTS 2020 - Sunflowers are the Best System
Amy Liu
Natural Affinities I - IV
Catherine Stewart
Blossom Forth
Margaret Lin
The Great Unknown
Ruby Burns