Catherine M. Stewart

 The Colour of Courtship

While viewing the biological collections at the University of British Columbia, I was captivated by the contents of storage drawers full of carefully arranged specimens and amazed by the highly rigourous nature of zoological curatorial practice. The colourful songbird collection was particularly breathtaking and became the raw material for this series of lightjet prints.

(Read full artist’s statement at the end)

Artist's Statement

While viewing the biological collections at the University of British Columbia, I was captivated by the contents of storage drawers full of carefully arranged specimens and amazed by the highly rigourous nature of zoological curatorial practice. The colourful songbird collection was particularly breathtaking and became the raw material for this series of lightjet prints.

Using a high resolution scanner as a camera and the design vehicle, PhotoShop, I focused on the colour differentiation between the sexes , a topic that Charles Darwin researched and described extensively in his second book on evolutionary theory Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871). Many of the works in this series magnify details in bird plumage and reveal a multitude of rich and varied hues that combine to create the textures and patterns that one can observe when viewing birds in nature. In some, there is a suggestion of movement - the flutter of wings or perhaps a courtship 'dance'; in others, references to reproduction and nesting. All the images highlight the significant role that colour plays in the mating rituals of many songbird species.

Traditional wildlife imaging, including scientific documentation of bird species, is usually done through careful hand rendering or telescopic photography of live creatures in natural settings. Breaking away from these traditions, these 'wildlife' images are of museum songbird specimens arranged outside the context of nature. Their deceased state brings a sense of pathos to the work and acts as a reminder that the sight and sound of songbirds may become a rare experience as avian populations across the planet plummet because of environmental degradation. Museum specimens may, one day, be all we have left of many species. Yet, there is also a sense of hope - a fragile hope, conveyed by the presence of eggs.

These images of carefully prepared specimens with their tags filled with detailed information allude to the painstaking nature of research in the zoological sciences - the kind of precise and disciplined work that led Darwin to his ground-breaking insights. However, another theme that surfaced in this body of work over the course of its creation was the ceaseless, tragic, yet beautiful cycle of sex, birth, life and death that plays out for all species in response to both intrinsic and external forces and the underlying laws of nature.

Note: I had the honour of exhibiting many of these prints in 2009 at the Darwin Festival at the University of Cambridge that was held in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth (1809) and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species (1859).

Copyright © 2022 Catherine M. Stewart. All rights reserved.