Colors of evolution: Darwin's theory through artists’ eyes
People soon to be turning into flowers, vegetables or even pigs? Unlikely, but this is how some Russian artists displaying their works at the British embassy these days imagine the path of evolution.
Some 15 Russian contemporary artists tried to find the answers to the questions of how much we really know about the origins of mankind. Their rediscovering of the works by the great British scientist Sir Charles Darwin can be seen at a special exhibition organized to mark 200 years since Darwin’s birth.
"The works which we were receiving for this exhibition… were all dedicated to this relationship between a human being and a monkey,” said the curator of the exhibition, Masha Naimushina. "When we had more than 10 of these, we decided that we should actually make a summary of the theory and write something about Charles Darwin to make people remember and assess from a new point of view… what his theory is.”
Of course, each artist has his own vision of Darwin’s theory.
"For me, Darwin was one of the most interesting of 19th century’s scientists,” said one participant in the exhibition, artist Andrey Karpov . "He did a lot to drive science forward… I’m not sure of how evolution works, but people do change, that’s for sure. Maybe we will turn into flowers or maybe into something else. That’s why my work is called "Mansflower.”
What is now on at the British embassy is just a little preview of what’s to come. Here you can see just some of the works that you’ll be able to discover at the full exhibition, but that’s not until March, when it will be held at the state Darwin Museum in Moscow.