NEONEANDERTHALS by Robbie Bushe

Robbie Bushe | Jeanne Cannizzo

NEONEANDERTHALS

Jeanne Cannizzo, Skull, 2018-19 mixed media Photograph: David Ellingsen

THIS CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATION OF A ‘RITUAL’ OBJECT IS BASED ON A CERVIDAE SKULL AND ANTLERS..

Robbie Bushe RSA, Infant Burial Sketch and Collage (with Jeanne Cannizzo image), 2019, mixed media, Photograph:Robbie Bushe

...THE CONSCIOUS COLLECTING, ADMIRATION OR CONTEMPLATION OF OBJECTS IS A CULTURAL ACTIVITY OF PROBABLE GREAT ANTIQUITY... ...TO WHICH HAVE BEEN ATTACHED NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS AND OBJECTS IN MATERIALS SUCH AS PLASTIC AND METAL..

Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe, 1912, Robert Munro, Public Domain

...NEITHER OF WHICH WERE AVAILABLE TO NEANDERTHALS. SUCH ANIMALS WERE A FOOD SOURCE FOR SOME NEANDERTHAL GROUPS.

Jeanne Cannizzo, Skull, 2018-19, mixed media. Photograph: David Ellingsen

Robbie Bushe | Jeanne Cannizzo

NEONEANDERTHALS

14 September - 20 October 2019 FINLAY ROOM, ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY, THE MOUND, EDINBURGH

Introduction

but recent discoveries suggest that their behaviour, abilities and worldviews were more complex than previously imagined. While the circumstances of such interbreeding can’t be recovered, the discoveries do suggest that early modern humans did not always kill other people. Their interaction was not always predicated on violence incited by difference. The archaeological record also makes it quite clear that migration has long been a feature of human life. Neanderthal extinction probably came about through a combination of factors. Those causes range from: climate and environmental change; a volcanic ‘winter’; the presence or absence of wolfdogs; warm, parka-like garments, superior weaponry or hunting skills of early modern humans.

Robbie Bushe RSA Neanderthal Head Study 2 and 3 (details), 2019 mixed media

The popular image of Neanderthals since the first fossil finds in the 19th century has been of hairy, low-browed, unintelligent beings incapable of symbolic thought who, perhaps deservedly, were killed off by invading humans. In 2010 that picture was overturned by DNA discoveries which revealed that Neanderthals and early modern humans had interbred, probably some 80,000 to 100,000 years ago when the two groups encountered each other somewhere in the Middle East. Today, some of their DNA lives on in billions of people. Geneticists are still trying to determine how this small amount of DNA (1-4%) affects those who have inherited those genes. It is important to remember that Neanderthals didn’t look like nor think like early modern humans

The imagined worlds of the Neanderthals, past, present and future, are envisioned and embodied in the comedic drawings and fantastical objects made for this exhibition. This work touches on the world of science fiction - where so often the struggles between dystopias and utopias are played out. While acknowledging there are parallels with current pressing problems in our own world, we are optimistic about humanity’s collective ability to survive. My mother asked for an unusual Christmas gift one year - that her mitochondrial DNA be analysed as part of a widely advertised commercial project. 3

Le Moustier skull in Berlin reconstitution, Gary Todd, Le Moustier Neanderthal Skull reconstitution, Public Domain

Ideal restoration of the Neanderthal Man from “A manual of the antiquity of man” (1875), John Patterson MacLean. Black and white version on Flickr from The Library of Congress. Public Domain

When the results were returned she was disappointed, even mortified. She (and her three daughters) are 1.8% Neanderthal and 2.3% Denisovan. That is, 4.1% of our DNA is from early or archaic forms of humans who are now extinct.

As an anthropologist with both scholarly and aesthetic interests, I wanted to explore what it means to have a bit of Neanderthal DNA as part of my biological, and perhaps cultural, heritage through the making of new art forms.

At age 93 she had powerful, if outdated, images of what a Neanderthal was like: a lumbering, mis-shaped brute (always male in her mind) with a diminished brain capacity, no language except perhaps grunting, and no ‘culture’. I, and eventually my mother, were intrigued to think that these early humans hadn’t completely disappeared from the earth. They weren’t totally extinct, but survive, even if only fractionally, in our bodies.

Robbie has taught me so much about the generation of ideas and images which resonate with each other’s work while respecting the other artist’s integrity. I am pleased he took up the challenge of the NEONEANDERTHALS. Dr Jeanne Cannizzo

DISCLAIMER This is an art exhibition making imaginative use of the scientific data speculating on both the physical and cultural inheritance left to us by the Neanderthals. Although we have read some of the latest academic research in these areas, we are not paleontologists or geneticists. We are not qualified to write about the complexities of human evolution – whether about our genetic inheritance, migrations routes, interbreeding sites, timelines and dates, or causes of extinction. This is an art project, not a science one - albeit one informed and influenced by various scientific issues, and research-based.

Robbie Bushe RSA Neanderthal Head Study 4, 2019 mixed media

Robbie Bushe RSA, The Rural Underground Centre (detail), 2019, gouache, dip pen and wash

Reanimating Neanderthals I met Jeanne in the late 2000s when she signed up for some of my classes. She made large gestural drawings with not quite enough patience, but with little fear. She also made things happen, curating and collaborating on critically successful exhibitions. Last I heard of her she retired early and moved back to Canada.

I didn’t have any real knowledge of the Neanderthals. Only the myths. As a child I was teased - called a Neanderthal because of my receding forehead and protruding brow. I was a distracted learner - slapdash and messy. One of my teachers told me there was a simple ancestry test: sit on chair and put your elbows into your hips and your arm over your legs - if your hands fall over your knees, you are a Neanderthal! And mine did. So I lost myself in things I could do on my own - improvised role playing, drawing characters, creatures and inventing stories, all with a good dose of whatever sci-fi or fantasy I had been watching. Creating comic books, acting, performing and writing songs gave me the confidence that schoolwork did not. I had to make a choice: art won. But, throughout all my art education and career, I have struggled to find an outlet for my improvised stories, characters and voices. When Jeanne approached me, I was already moving beyond my usual art practices, reintroducing the notions of fantasy, fiction and invention which had reinvigorated me as an artist. Jeanne wanted us to speculate creatively on recent discoveries about Neanderthals. She kept me stocked with images, articles, artworks, maps, and diagrams. At first, I made simple improvised collages and drawings. I then constructed narratives or stories where characters and events emerged and acted out unplanned fragments. Jeanne responded with drawings of creatures, contraptions and ‘artefacts’ which then found their way back into my work.

Robbie Bushe RSA, The Last Neanderthal (animation still) 2019

But in 2017 she emailed me with the news that her mother had been horrified to discover that she has Neanderthal DNA. Jeanne asked if I wanted to make art, with her, exploring this? Something twigged.

The process led to a natural demarcation of work. Jeanne was making sculptural objects and I made large scale pictorial drawings and paintings. What we did not predict was the role that improvised animation would play. But a smart phone, an idle evening, a couple of glasses of wine and I began drawing and voicing daft stop-motion animations. I tried it a couple of days later, slightly more seriously. And then again - downloading and testing a whole gamut of animation apps becoming adept enough to bring life to my characters and give them a voice.

SOME 30,000 YEARS AGO, EARLY MODERN HUMANS COME TO PAY THEIR RESPECTS TO THE LAST OF THE ANCIENT NEANDERTHALS...

For this exhibition I created four large scale paintings, each the setting for an animated story. They reveal the journey of ‘last of the Neanderthals’ through the past, present and future with each painting’s environment prompting new interactions. NEONEANDERTHALS has been a labour of love and working with Jeanne has taken my practice on journeys I might never have embarked on my own. Her objects, beasts and artefacts enhance, complement and add depth to the stories we are telling and questions we are asking through this work. Robbie Bushe RSA

Robbie Bushe RSA The Last Neanderthal, 2019 oil and mixed media on canvas

...A SOLITARY FEMALE LOVINGLY TENDING HER WILD GARDEN. SHE HAS ONLY HOURS TO LIVE...

...BUT THE MOMENT HAS BEEN PREPARED FOR…

Neandertal 1 Calvarium B, circa 1857, Johann Karl Fuhlrott, http://yovisto.blogspot. com.es/2014/02/the-discovery-of-neanderthal-man.html, Public Domain

IT HAS BEEN KNOWN SINCE 2012 THAT SOME NEANDERTHALS, USING STONE TOOLS, REMOVED THE DARK WING FEATHERS AND TALONS OF CORVIDS AND RAPTORS FOR RITUAL PURPOSES OR ADORNING THEMSELVES. CONTESTED

Jeanne Cannizzo, Staff, 2019 mixed media Photograph: Alicia Bruce THIS IS SYMBOLIC BEHAVIOUR AND AN EXPRESSION OF ADVANCED COGNITIVE ABILITIES. NO NEANDERTHAL OBJECT SUCH AS THE ONE HERE HAS BEEN FOUND.

Jeanne Cannizzo Staff (detail), 2019 mixed media Photograph: Alicia Bruce

Robbie Bushe RSA Neoneanderthal (details), 2019 mixed media

MOST ORGANIC MATERIALS SUCH AS WOOD, VEGETABLE FIBRES, HIDES AND FUR OR HAIR DO NOT SURVIVE IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD, SO IT IS UNKNOWN IF NEANDERTHALS MADE MASKS.

Robbie Bushe RSA, The Last Neanderthal (animation still), 2019

Jeanne Cannizzo Hunting Mask, 2019 mixed media Photograph: Alicia Bruce

IT IS CLEAR, ACCORDING TO SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS OF ANATOMY AND ARTEFACTS, THAT THEY HAD SOME SORT OF LANGUAGE AND WERE THUS CAPABLE OF SYMBOLIC OR ABSTRACT THOUGHT, AND INTERESTED IN RITUAL. CONTESTED

THIS MASK IS MEANT TO ‘CONFUSE’ POTENTIAL GAME WHILE OFFERING RITUAL PROTECTION TO THE NEANDERTHAL HUNTER.

Robbie Bushe RSA Neanderthal Head Study 2 and 3 (details), 2019 mixed media

Jeanne Cannizzo Hunting Mask (detail), 2019 mixed media Photograph: Alicia Bruce

Robbie Bushe RSA On the DNA Dancefloor, 2019 oil and mixed media on canvas

OVER THOUSANDS OF YEARS AS EARLY MODERN HUMANS AND NEANDERTHALS INTERACT - HUNTING AND GATHERING, DANCING, AND INTERBREEDING...

AN UNDERGROUND DEN WHERE SCIENTIFIC ‘BOFFINS’ CAN STAKE OUT AND TRANSFER DNA FROM THE WILD AND THEN CREATE NEW NEANDERTHALS IN A CHAMBER.

Left Robbie Bushe RSA Neoneanderthals (animation still), 2019

Right Robbie Bushe RSA The Forest Transference Chamber (detail) 2019 Gouache, dip pen and wash

Jeanne Cannizzo and Kerry Samantha Boyes (Fabricator) Dance Rink, 2019, mixed media Photograph: Alicia Bruce

NEANDERTHALS SHAPED AS MANY AS 400 STALAGMITES INTO TWO OVAL STRUCTURES DEEP INSIDE A FRENCH CAVE SOME 176,000 YEARS AGO.

SCIENTISTS ARE UNSURE WHAT THESE WALLED CONSTRUCTIONS, PROBABLY LIT WITH FIRES, WERE PUT SINCE BEING REPORTED IN 2016. OURS IS A DANCE RINK, WHICH IS ONE OF THE POSSIBILITIES. CONTESTED!

Spy Cave where were found in 1886 neanderthalian remains. Sambreville, Belgium, www.hommedespy.be, Public Domain

SOME RESEARCHERS HAVE ARGUED THAT CAVES OCCUPIED BY NEANDERTHALS REVEAL ORGANIZED AREAS FOR SLEEPING, MAKING OF TOOLS, FOOD PREPARATION, BUTCHERING, WORKING BONE AND ANTLER, WHICH IMPLIES THE ABILITY TO CONCEPTUALIZE SPACE. CONTESTED!

IF TRUE, AS SUGGESTED BY A SITE IN JORDAN, THEY ALSO HAD COMPLEX SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND BEHAVIOUR MORE LIKE EARLY MODERN HUMANS.

Robbie Bushe RSA The Last Neanderthals (animation still) 2019

Robbie Bushe RSA Neoneanderthals (animation still) 2019

OVER HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS, WOOLLY MAMMOTHS RANGED THE GRASSLANDS FROM SCOTLAND TO THE YUKON.

Jeanne Cannizzo Squashed Baby Mammoth Head 2019, mixed media Photograph: Alicia Bruce A SMALL GROUP MAY HAVE SURVIVED UNTIL 4,000 YEARS AGO ON AN ISLAND OFF SIBERIA. COMPARED TO AN ELEPHANT, THE MAMMOTH HAS A SHAGGY COAT, SMALL ROUND EARS, AND CURVED TUSKS.

THIS SCULPTURE WAS INSPIRED BY A MUMMIFIED MAMMOTH SOME 39,000 YEARS OLD WHICH WAS FOUND IN 2010 IN RUSSIA. Copy of the first attempt at restoration of the Adams mammoth Early 1800s, Roman Boltunov, www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/ index.php?s=1&act=refs&CODE=ref_ detail&id=1359008926

YUKA, AS THE JUVENILE FEMALE WAS NICK-NAMED, HAD BEEN PRESERVED UNDER PERMAFROST WHICH FLATTENED THE BODY. SOME OF THE INTERNAL ORGANS HAD BEEN REMOVED BY HUMANS ALTHOUGH WHICH KIND IS UNCLEAR.

Robbie Bushe RSA, Mammoth Collage Sketch, 2019, mixed media, Photograph: Robbie Bushe

PRESENT DAY, HIDDEN UNDER MANY FORGOTTEN OR DISUSED HOSPITALS, ARE WARRENS OF STILL- FUNCTIONING OPERATING THEATRES, RECOVERY ROOMS AND LABORATORIES. THEY HAVE A SINGLE GOAL: TO BRING BACK THE NEANDERTHALS!

Robbie Bushe RSA, The Neanderthal Futures Infirmary (with annotations), 2019 mixed media and oil on canvas

WHY? TO SEE IF THEY AND OTHER ARCHAIC HUMANS MIGHT HAVE THEIR OWN, DIFFERENT WAYS TO SAVE OUR PLANET AND GIVE US ALL A FUTURE…

Jeanne Cannizzo, Spare Parts (Cloned), 2019, mixed media. Photograph: Alicia Bruce SOME SCIENTISTS BELIEVE THAT, EVENTUALLY, A NEANDERTHAL MIGHT BE ‘DE-EXTINCTED’. IN EITHER CASE, THIS WOULD RAISE IMPORTANT ETHICAL ISSUES, AS THE CLONE WOULD, AT LEAST INITIALLY, BE WITHOUT OTHERS LIKE ITSELF. BOTH MAMMOTHS AND HUMANS ARE SOCIAL BEINGS, NEEDING EACH OTHER TO SURVIVE. NOR WOULD THE CLONE HAVE THE ORIGINAL PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT TO WHICH ITS SPECIES WAS HABITUATED.

FOR THE ‘HOSTING’ GROUP INTO WHICH THE CLONE WAS INTRODUCED THERE MIGHT BE UNEXPECTED DANGERS. SOME SCIENTISTS HAVE SPECULATED THAT SUCH CLONES MIGHT BE ‘ECOLOGICALLY DISRUPTIVE’ OR CARRY PAST DISEASES INTO NEW POPULATIONS.

Jeanne Cannizzo Infant Burial, 2019 mixed media Photograph: Alicia Bruce

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE SUGGESTS THAT NEANDERTHALS TOOK CARE OF THEIR SICK, OLD OR DEPENDENT MEMBERS. BURIAL PRACTICES SEEM TO HAVE INCLUDED COVERING OR NESTLING BODIES AMONG ROCKS IN THE BACK OF CAVES. CONTESTED

Jeanne Cannizzo Infant Burial, 2019 mixed media Photograph: Alicia Bruce

AT A NEANDERTHAL SITE IN IRAQ WILDFLOWERS MAY HAVE BEEN LEFT ON A ‘GRAVE’ ALTHOUGH MOST ARCHAEOLOGISTS SUGGEST THAT THE POLLEN JUST BLEW INTO THE CAVE OR MAY HAVE BEEN FROM GERBIL NESTS. REPUDIATED THE BODY IN OUR IMAGINED MINIATURE BURIAL SITE HAS BEEN PAINTED. MINERAL PIGMENTS, FOR EXAMPLE YELLOW AND RED OCHRE, AND BLACK WERE AVAILABLE TO NEANDERTHALS FOR BODILY ADORNMENT AND THE DECORATION OF OBJECTS.

THE MAMMOTH DNA GENOME (A ‘BLUEPRINT’ FOR MAKING A SPECIES) HAS BEEN ALMOST FULLY IDENTIFIED AND IN THEORY IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE TO CLONE ONE. ‘DE-EXTINCTION’ IS POSSIBLE. SO FAR NO ONE HAS YET DONE THIS, ALTHOUGH Jeanne Cannizzo De-extinction by Cloning, 2019 mixed media Photograph: Alicia Bruce

CLONING FROM NON-EXTINCT SPECIES HAS BEEN ACHIEVED, MOST FAMOUSLY WITH DOLLY THE SHEEP IN SCOTLAND IN 1996.

Photograph: Alicia Bruce

First reconstruction of Neanderthal man 1888, Ther Neanderthaler Fund, Marcus, Bonn, Hermann Schaaffhausen,

A PLAYFUL RENDERING OF THE 1950S SCI-FI TROPE OF SECRET LABORATORIES SET UP UNDER SCIENTIFIC OFFICES...

...WHERE TORTURE DEVICES AND COMPRESSION CHAMBERS EXIST WHOSE SOLE PURPOSE IS TO RECREATE NEANDERTHALS... FOR GOOD OR ILL.

Robbie Bushe RSA, The Laboratory Under the Office, 2019 gouache, dip pen and wash

IMAGINE A WORLD, 30,000 YEARS HENCE, WHERE THE RE-EMERGENCE OF THE NEANDERTHALS THROUGH DNA CLONING IS NOW WELL ESTABLISHED AND THEY FORM THE MAJORITY...

Robbie Bushe, Neoneanderthals (with annotations) mixed media and oil on canvas 2019

...BUT SOME EARLY MODERN HUMANS REJECT THE IDEA THAT THERE ARE A MULTIPLICITY OF WAYS TO BE HUMAN; THAT DIVERSITY PROVIDES THE CHANCE OF FINDING SOLUTIONS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, WHETHER ENVIRONMENTAL, POLITICAL OR SOCIAL.

FULLY DOMESTICATED DOGS CAN TAKE PART IN HUNTING, ACT AS GUARD ANIMALS...

...AND BE USED AS FOR THE TRANSPORT OF PEOPLE AND BAGGAGE. IT HAS BEEN SUGGESTED BY ONE SCHOLAR THAT ‘WOLF-DOGS’...

Jeanne Cannizzo, Wolf Dog, 2018-19 mixed media Photograph: David Ellingsen

...ALONG WITH BETTER WEAPONS AND SKILL IN HUNTING, GAVE EARLY MODERN HUMANS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AND THUS CONTRIBUTED TO THE DISAPPEARANCE OF NEANDERTHALS. CONTESTED Robbie Bushe, Neoneanderthals (detail) 2019

OUR WOLF-DOG IS SHOWN WITH SOME WOLF-LIKE AND OTHER MORE DOGGISH FEATURES, INCLUDING YELLOW EYES (W) AND A TAIL WHICH CAN CURL SLIGHTLY AT THE TIP (D).

Photograph: David Ellingsen

SHE IS ALSO EQUIPPED WITH AN ICE AGE SURVIVAL KIT: SNOW GOGGLES, A SNOWBOARD, ANTI-ICE ARMOUR, FOOD BONES, AND A BREATHING TUBE FOR USE IN CASE OF BURIAL BY AVALANCHE.

Photograph: David Ellingsen

NEANDERTHALS USED A THRUSTING SPEAR TO KILL LARGE ANIMALS. A STONE TIP WAS ATTACHED TO A WOODEN SHAFT WITH PITCH MADE BY BURNING BIRCH TREE BARK.

THIS TECHNIQUE REQUIRED CLOSE CONTACT WITH THEIR PREY. FOSSIL FINDS SUGGEST NEANDERTHAL HUNTERS WERE SOMETIMES WOUNDED BY MAMMOTH TUSKS. Robbie Bushe, Neoneanderthals (detail with anti-stab vest) 2019

ALTHOUGH THEY MAY HAVE HAD DIFFERENT ROLES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN TOOK PART IN HUNTING.

Cranium of Homo Neanderthalensis (right). Found at Le Moustier. Ca. 45.000 BC. Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Museum of prehistory and early history), Einsamer Schütze, Berlin. Public Domain

NEANDERTHAL TEETH REVEAL THAT SOME GROUPS ATE MORE WILD PLANTS, FRUITS AND BERRIES THAN AT FIRST SUPPOSED.

THERE IS NO SUGGESTION THAT WOMEN DID ONLY GATHERING AND MEN ONLY HUNTING.

Jeanne Cannizzo Anti-stab Vest for Female mammoth hunter, 2019 mixed media Photograph: Alicia Bruce

MUCH LIKE THE REVOLVING DOOR APPARATUS, THIS DNA HARVESTER EXTRACTS MODERN HUMAN NEANDERTHAL DNA WHILE THEY GO ABOUT THEIR BUSINESS.

Robbie Bushe RSA The Provincial DNA Harvester (detail) gouache, dip pen and wash, 2018

Robbie Bushe RSA Neoneaderthals (animation stills) 2019

THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT NEANDERTHALS MADE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. CONTESTED

...INSTRUMENTS HAVEN’T BEEN PRESERVED OR RECOGNISED IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES.

A NEANDERTHAL ‘FLUTE’ FOUND IN SLOVENIA IS THOUGHT TO BE CAVE BEAR BONE WITH PUNCTURE MARKS FROM THE TEETH OF HYENAS. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE MATERIALS WHICH NEANDERTHALS MAY HAVE USED IN MAKING...

THEY MAY ALSO HAVE USED THEIR OWN BODIES TO MAKE SOUNDS THROUGH CLAPPING AND STAMPING. ‘NEANDERTHAL’ MUSIC, COMPOSED BY A JAZZ MUSICIAN, WAS PERFORMED WITH SINGERS AND STONE INSTRUMENTS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WALES IN 2009.

Jeanne Cannizzo Abalone rasp with seabird bone sticks, 2019 mixed media Photograph: Alicia Bruce

Jeanne Cannizzo Clam Shell Rattle, 2019 mixed media Photograph: Alicia Bruce

Jeanne Cannizzo Whale vertebrae bracelet with engraved and coloured markin gs, 2019 Mixed media, Photograph: Alicia Bruce

PERSONAL ADORNMENT INDICATES A CERTAIN DEGREE NOT ONLY OF CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE SELF, BUT ALSO INDIVIDUALITY.

THE DESIGN ON THIS BRACELET, MADE FOR THIS EXHIBITION, REFERENCES AN ABSTRACT CROSSHATCHING FOUND IN THE BEDROCK OF A CAVE IN GIBRALTAR. IT WAS ENGRAVED WITH A POINTED STONE TOOL BY A NEANDERTHAL. CONTESTED

HAND STENCILS MADE BY BLOWING RED OCHRE FROM THE MOUTH TO MAKE AN OUTLINE OF THE HAND IS A NOT UNCOMMON FEATURE OF EUROPEAN CAVE ART, AND ALWAYS ASSUMED TO HAVE BEEN MADE BY EARLY MODERN HUMANS.

HOWEVER, NEW DATING FROM A SPANISH CAVE HAS SHOWN THAT AT LEAST ONE OF THEM WERE MADE BY A NEANDERTHAL BEFORE EARLY MODERN HUMANS ARRIVED. CONTESTED!

Robbie Bushe RSA

Dr. Jeanne Cannizzo

Robbie Bushe RSA has exhibited his distinctive narrative works throughout the UK since 1990, winning several national awards including the Guthrie Medal at the Royal Scottish Academy and in 2016 the inaugural W Gordon Smith painting prize. Born in Liverpool, he grew up in Aberdeenshire, before graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in 1990. Since then he has successfully worked as both an artist and fine art lecturer in Aberdeen, Chichester, Kent, Oxford and Edinburgh. He was President of Visual Arts Scotland from 2013-16 and was elected a member of the RSA in 2017 where he is now serving as Sectretary.

Jeanne Cannizzo - anthropologist, occasional guest curator at The Scottish National Portrait Gallery – last exhibition Our Highland Home: Victoria and Albert in Scotland, co-artist with Joan smith ECA, exhibition Smugglerius Unveiled at Talbot Rice Gallery, art work in juried exhibitions in Dundee and London, Florida and gallery (commercial) in Canada, Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh (1994-2009) teaching material culture, anthropology of art and critical museology.

He has yet to be tested for Neanderthal DNA. 23

She is 1.8% Neanderthal and 2.3% Denisovan.

Robbie Bushe | Jeanne Cannizzo

NEONEANDERTHALS 14 September - 20 October 2019 FINLAY ROOM, LOWER GALLERIES ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY THE MOUND, EDINBURGH www.royalscottishacademy.org

royal scottish academy RSA Charity No. SC004198

Acknowlegements Kerry Samantha Boyes - Fabricator Alicia Bruce - Photography David Ellingsen - Photography Gabor Csakany - lighting on Wolf Dog Robbie Bushe - Catalogue Design www.21colour.co.uk - printer Amy Cameron - RSA Exhibition Coordinator Catharine Davison Bettye K. Cannizzo David Stafford Jane Coombe Shawn Shepherd Jamie McAteer, Detail Framing Clinical Skills Team, University of Edinburgh dedicated to our mothers Bettye K. Cannizzo whose horror of discovering she had Neanderthal DNA gave Jeanne a germ of an idea... Rose Oliver whose stories, characters, pictures and performances inspire Robbie every day.

Front: Robbie Bushe RSA Neoneanderthals (detail) Oil and mixed media on canvas Back: Jeanne Cannizzo Wolf Dog, 2018-19, mixed media Photograph: David Ellingsen