Catherine Stewart: The Colour of Courtship

About

Using songbird specimens from the Cowan Vertebrate Museum at the University of British Columbia, Catherine Stewart has produced a body of work that focuses on colour differentiation in plumage between the sexes — a topic that Darwin discusses extensively in Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. Using high resolution scans and the design vehicle, PhotoShop, this Vancouver-based artist explores the vast spectrum of colour that plays such a significant role in mating in the avian world. These enlarged digital images magnify details in bird plumage and, in so doing, reveal the multitude of rich and varied hues that combine to create the colour, texture and pattern we observe when viewing birds in nature. Catherine will be giving a talk on the 7th July at 6pm to accompany this exhibition.