Press Release For immediate release
Coral: Something Rich and Strange 29 November 2013 – 16 March 2014 Manchester Museum Free Entry Coral: Something Rich and Strange is a visually spectacular temporary exhibition launching at Manchester Museum this autumn. This major show will juxtapose historic and contemporary art, new commissions and natural history specimens and explore the enduring fascination with coral as a material and inspiration for artists, cultures and societies, from antiquity to the present day. The displays will include a plethora of fascinating and beautiful objects, telling a story about biodiversity and the importance of marine environments. They will bring attention to coral’s fascinating natural, scientific characteristics; the diversity of its shapes and patterns; its uses in different cultures and contexts; and the urgency of marine habitat protection. Coral will be seen in a new light, as an organism, material and symbol bridging and blurring many fields and disciplines. Natural history specimens from the Museum’s zoology collection, fossils, glass models of marine invertebrates, and scientific illustrations will be seen alongside cultural artefacts (charms, talismans, funerary objects, rosaries, netsuke and jewellery ‘curiosities’). Paintings, prints, textiles and objects from the collections of Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery and the V&A will also be on display alongside artworks from 15 national and 3 international institutions. Dr Nick Merriman, Director of Manchester Museum said: “According to a recent authoritative report, half of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed in the last 30 years, and if we do not take action immediately to reverse this decline, we will see all of them disappear before the end of the century. This exhibition is timely by showing the beauty of coral, both in nature and in the ways it has been used artistically, and what we risk losing if we stand by while it is destroyed”.
The exhibition is curated by Dr Marion Endt-Jones, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in Art History and Visual Studies, University of Manchester. She explained how the exhibition is the culmination of a three year project: “Manchester Museum, as a multi-disciplinary university museum, presented itself as an ideal venue for giving a public outlet to my research on the cultural history of coral as an organism, material and symbol. The exhibition hopes to illustrate what rich and diverse cultural tradition we put at risk by polluting, overfishing and acidifying the world’s oceans.” The exhibition will also include commissions of new works from the internationally renowned artist Mark Dion and the Lancashire-based textile artist Karen Casper, as well as a large-scale community engagement project, Manchester’s very own Crochet Coral Reef as part of the worldwide Crochet Coral Reef project created by the Institute For Figuring. A beautifully illustrated book, Coral: Something Rich and Strange, accompanies the exhibition, containing an essay on coral in art and nature, an interview with the artist Gemma Anderson and several object stories by experts from different disciplines, ranging from art history and archaeology to history of science and biology, published by Liverpool University Press. The exhibition is supported by Arts Council England and The Granada Foundation. ENDS CONTACT For further information and images please contact Rachel Fitzgerald, Press Officer at Manchester Museum: Rachel.fitzgerald@manchester.ac.uk / 0161 275 8786 Notes to Editors Exhibition Design The exhibition design for Coral: Something Rich and Strange is by Ben Kelly Design and the graphic design is by Charlotte Lord. www.benkellydesign.com Artist Commissions: Mark Dion The exhibition at Manchester Museum will be situated adjacent to Dion’s Bureau for the Centre of the Study of Surrealism and its Legacy, his mock bureau for surrealist research that evokes the passion for collecting objects,
both natural and man-made. Dion’s new commission for Coral: Something Rich and Strange consists of a new coral sculpture and drawings, as well as prints from the artist’s own collection which will be scattered throughout the ‘Bureau’ to draw the two spaces together. Karen Casper Northwest (Helmshore) based textile artist and designer Karen Casper produces beautiful, art/fashion pieces, working with mixed traditional and contemporary techniques. Much of Karen Caspers’s recent work has been created within the themes of ‘Underwater Love meets Primal Futurism’ and ‘Coraline’. For this exhibition, the artist has created a fan made from glow-inthe-dark coral reef inspired vintage fabrics. Community Art Project – The Crochet Coral Reef in Manchester A visual highlight of the exhibition, and the main focal point for the project’s public participation activities will be a community art project to create the Manchester Satellite Reef, part of the worldwide Crochet Coral Reef project created by the Institute For Figuring. The Crochet Coral Reef project is described by its originators as, ‘a unique fusion of art, science, mathematics, handicraft and community practice’. http://crochetcoralreef.org/ In Manchester, we will undertake a satellite reef which will bring together participants from across the city with an interest in art, craft and conservation. At the conclusion of the exhibition, the Manchester Satellite Reef will be kept and displayed in an appropriate venue in The University of Manchester as a lasting legacy of the project. About Manchester Museum Manchester Museum is the UK’s largest university museum and all of its collections are designated by the government as being of national and international importance. As a university museum, Manchester Museum uses its international collection of human and natural history for enjoyment and inspiration. Working with people from all backgrounds, the Museum provokes debate and reflection about the past, present and future of the earth and its inhabitants and uses its collection to promote understanding between cultures and to help work towards a sustainable world. Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL Tel: 0161 275 2648 Opening times: 10am-5pm every day. Closed: 24-26 Dec, 1 Jan www.manchester.ac.uk/museum