Have you ever watched two Galapagos tortoises trying to hump? It’s hilarious. Really good fun. But not for the tortoises, I suspect. They slip and slide and grunt and groan, pushing their physiology to its limits. Then fail. Footage of this spectacle was taken by artist Marcus Coates, as an anecdotal riposte to those who posit an intelligent designer of the world’s beasties. His video installation can be viewed at the Baltic Contemporary Arts Centre in Gateshead, along with a dozen or so other eye-opening exhibits that form part of the Darwin200 programme.
Yes, I left my London comfort zone (which ends somewhere around Luton, special fares may apply) at the weekend, with a trip up to Newcastle. It was my first visit to the Baltic. It’s a former grain warehouse, converted into a modern art gallery, a la Tate modern, around seven years ago. Inside, it’s very different to its Bankside counterpart. There’s no grand central hall. Instead, a stack of small gallery space are accessed by lift.
On the third of these floors is the most impressive addition to the Darwin200 cavalcade that I’ve seen. Called A Duck For Mr Darwin after the avian offering Wallace sent to his elder collaborator from Lombok in 1857, the exhibition shows off the work of nine artists. Believe me, I know. The very thought of yet another Darwin-inspired arts project might make you want to scratch someone’s eyes out with a finch’s beak and feed them to a beagle, but this one’s a real barnstormer. Every installation gets you thinking.
Marcus Coates is, for me, the star of the show. As well as his tortoise footage, the artist also contributes clips from a Galapagos TV show, in which he dressed as a blue-footed booby, dispensing insights on the human condition to the unwary islanders. The result is both hilarious and thoughtful.
Elsewhere, two recent names from the Natural History Museum contribute. Mark Dion recreates the scene on an exotic beach shortly after a Victorian explorer’s expedition equipment has been unloaded onto the sand. Nearby, Tania Kovats (creator of the tree ceiling at the NHM), has installed a huge wormery in a darkened room. Outside sit silver casts modelled after the worms’ excretions.
Two other highlights have London connections. A set of paintings showing the glass eyes of stuffed animals in the NHM (Mark Fairnington) and a load of old balls found along the River Lea, arranged like specimens alongside the collector’s boat (Conrad Shawcross).
The Baltic is only three and a quarter hours by train. Not as far as you might think. It’s worth the journey for the quasi-rutting tortoises alone, but the entire ensemble is my pick of the fittest exhibition in a huge and varied population of Darwinalia.
A Duck For Mr Darwin runs at the Baltic, Gateshead until 20 September. Entry is free.