Zoologías

Yesterday we bagged Oliver up into his front-slung carrier bag and walked to the new exhibition centre at my university, c arte c (it stands for 'Centro de Arte Complutense', as you might have guessed, but don't you just love the sans-serif abbreviations that art galleries all like to use? My favourite is MAO for 'Modern Art Oxford', which adds a pleasantly Red tinge to the exhibits). The inaugural exhibition, Zoologías: La imagen del animal en los fondos históricos de la UCM y su reinterpretación artística por el grupo de investigación Arte, Ciencia y Naturaleza is a collection of artworks inspired by, and using, materials from the various natural history parts of the University museums.

So, you have e.g. old books about monsters with plaster representations of monsters next to them. Cassowary skeletons, birds' nests, insects decorated to look like celebrants in the Día de los Muertos. Pickled cats, butterfly wings, chicken foetuses.

Skeletons wearing braces, plastic coelacanths, a plaster model of a giant Japanese salamander. As is normal (although it is difficult to use the word 'normal' with a straight face here), Nature ended up beating Art on points.