Pole Tay Pole

pole imageAn exhibition by Level 3 Illustration students from DJCAD inspired by Dundee’s historic connections with polar exploration and whaling.

We would like to invite you to visit a new exhibition in the Zoology Museum opening on Friday featuring artworks inspired by Dundee’s historic connection with polar exploration and whaling.

As the major European centre of the whaling industry, Dundee men sailed regularly to the Arctic seas, bringing back not just whale product but specimens for museums and Inuit artefacts traded with the native people they met. Dundee’s expertise in building whaling ships led the Discovery and many other Antarctic exploration vessels to be built in the city, and a former Dundee student, Alister Forbes Mackay, was a member of the first party to reach the South Magnetic Pole in 1909.

These stories and others have inspired third-year Illustration students at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, who have been researching the topic in order to create artworks inspired by these polar adventures. Their work will be exhibited in a special exhibition in the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum at the University of Dundee, alongside specimens brought back from the Arctic and Antarctic for D’Arcy’s collection.

The students have created a diverse range of imaginative works inspired by the amazing resources on offer at the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum, Discovery Point, and the whaling collections in the McManus and the University Archives. The work on display will include drawings, prints, paintings, books, sculptural objects, assemblages and research journals that map the students’ creative journeys.

The exhibition opens with an evening preview on Friday 12 February 5.30-7pm, and will then be open for one day only on Sunday 14 February 11am-4pm. We hope you can make it along to see the students’ work.

Please enter by the main front door of the Carnelley Building.

Best wishes,
Matthew Jarron
Curator of Museum Services
University of Dundee
www.dundee.ac.uk.museum