Darwin’s Edinburgh

Two exhibitions that celebrate Darwin’s anniversary in different ways are currently on display side by side in the Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh. They are free and open to the public Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm, until 12 December 2009.

Darwin’s Edinburgh gives a historic perspective on Charles Darwin’s time in Edinburgh as a medical student in the 1820s. It draws on unique archival material from the University’s Collections and is staged in the Georgian Gallery (right), the location of the former College Museum where Darwin himself spent many hours studying, conversing and learning taxidermy skills.

Darwin’s Edinburgh is a focused, historical exhibition that aims to show the impact of Edinburgh and its intellectual environment on the young Charles Darwin. Four distinct themes are present in the exhibition. Each features a selection of historic objects, illustrative imagery and archival material from the University of Edinburgh, National Museums Scotland, National Library of Scotland, Cambridge University Library and other sources. The exhibition is generously sponsored by Baillie Gifford.

Key to the exhibition is its location; what is now the Talbot Rice Gallery was then part of the College Museum, the focus of natural history teaching and collecting at the University of Edinburgh. The time Darwin spent in this very room adds a unique dimension and relevance to the exhibition.

An Entangled Bank presents a series of diverse but interrelated works by five contemporary artists, who have drawn inspiration from one of Darwin’s most famous visual metaphors. The exhibition will be shown in the White Gallery.

An Entangled Bank is the partner exhibition to Darwin’s Edinburgh and includes work by five contemporary artists, who have been inspired by Darwin’s famous metaphor of the ‘Entangled Bank’. This term appears in the conclusion of On the Origin of Species, and encapsulates both the vivid literary style of Darwin’s writing as well as the density, difference and dependence he observed in the natural world.

The exhibition presents a rich visual spectacle where research and methodologies are displayed alongside finished work. All artists involved have significant national and international reputations and work in complex and various media including film, photography, digital projection, sculpture, installation and film.