We have had two weeks to respond to the d’arcy thompson’s zoology museum at dundee university and create a piece of art. Short notice is good as you can’t spend too much time over thinking things…yet here i am deciding between potato sculptures, text, short video pieces and drawings…
I’ve decided to use this blog to record the extraneous work as well as the developing of the works that make it in
The potato ratheads are in various stages of dissolution. Interestingly the rat whose snout was entirely submerged has transformed into riverbed type sludge, while the others have bubbled, sunken and swelled into something fungal and marshmallow like. There are glimpses of subterranean foetal like unnameables, forming limbs or lips, poking through the soup looking like a coming into focus something. I’ve left a new addition to the swarm, making this mischief in fact four and not three as listed. I’ll maybe rename it – three dead rats and a dredge of riverbed.
My rats are happier that they have a shelf life and can’t be forced to go on forever and ever, in the name of science dreaming of hanging themselves. Hey-ho, nothing lasts forever.
A colony/pack/mischief/swarm/plague/
come along on Saturday 2nd Feb to the D’arcy Thompson Zoology Museum for a chance to see some new additions to the MFA students responses.
12-5 pm
ESTRAGON: you say we have to come back tomorrow?
VLADIMIR: yes
ESTRAGON: then we can bring a good bit of rope
VLADIMIR: yes
silence
ESTRAGON: didi
VLADIMIR: yes
ESTRAGON: I can’t go on like this
VLADIMIR: that’s what you think
ESTRAGON: if we parted? That might be better for us
VLADIMIR: we’ll hang ourselves tomorrow (pause) unless Godot comes
ESTRAGON: and if he comes?
VLADIMIR: we’ll be saved
ESTRAGON: well? Shall we go?
VLADIMIR: pull on your trousers
ESTRAGON: what?
VLADIMIR: pull on your trousers
ESTRAGON: you want me to pull off my trousers
VLADIMIR: pull ON your trousers
ESTRAGON: (realising his trousers are down) True
he pulls up his trousers
VLADIMIR: well? Shall we go?
ESTRAGON: yes, lets go
they do not move
CURTAIN
godot (clay)
3 dead rats (potatoes)
Acts of Displacement runs alongside the Drawn from Structures Living and Dead and Unnatural Wonders exhibitions. Co-ordinated by Matthew Jarron, Curator of University of Dundee Museum Collections these shows are launching in the Tower Building, Perth Rd, on Friday 18th January starting with a talk by Mark Wright at 5.15pm followed by a drinks reception and opportunity to view the work.
Darcy thompson made monumental contributions to the field of zoological studies and his book ‘on growth and form’ is a scientific/mathematical masterpiece….yet when i go into the zoology museum i can’t help but reduce it to some sort of imagined theatre, where the animals act out their best ‘specimin’ character, each with their own ‘motivations’ and backstories. surely they come to life when we leave the building.
in conversation – the ermine and the water vole
Here are some of the first experiments with rats heads. Need to think about how to manage the decomposition process and how clear (or not) the sculpture is. The rats in the museum are amazing
response to d'arcy thompson's museum of zoology 
