Recently, I was asked to run some workshops at the wonderful Perth Museum, based on their Waters Rising exhibition. It is a thought provoking exhibition (due to finish soon on 16th March) on the impact of climate change in the past and in the present, internationally and locally. It has a focus on flooding, and the exhibits each tell a story. You can see an Egyptian sarcophagus pictured above. The exhibition explores the fact that the Nile flooding is both a positive and a destructive force - and testing on the sarcophagus revealed it had been exposed to flooding on two occasions.
These are the rather splendid jaws of a Gharial, a type of crocodile. It was part of the Perth Museum and Art Gallery collections back in the 1990s. There was a catastrohpic flood of Perthshire back in 1993. I was a teenager back then, and was home from University. I remember cycling down to see the Tay with my best friend and being dumbstruck by the extent of the flooding. In the background of the photo above, you can see a photo of people kayaking down a street in Perth. Perth Museum and Art Gallery was affected by this flood - and this Gharial's head bobbed out of the museum, and was picked up by an alarmed Royal Marine involved in the rescue efforts.
The exhibition covers the story of Noah, which appears both in the Koran and the Bible. This is a beautiful illustration by Elmer Boyd Smith which focuses on an unusual, imagined detail - that of two men trying to load a pair of dinosaurs onto the ark. I love the perspective depicted, and its composition as a close up snapshot of this task these men have. However, it was a depiction of the story of Noah from the Koran that inspired me to create a poster of my own. Below you can see the unusual ark which an artist imagined, having read the version of the Noah story in the Koran. I loved the shape of the ark, the birds in the sky, and the animals surrounding it. I used this as a starting point to create my own poster on the theme of flooding caused by climate change. The simple framework of the ark acts as a brilliant backdrop for the animals. I encourage you to go to Perth Museum and be inspired by the exhibits!
