Exhibition Review – Humans and nature
You might expect an exhibition on ‘Human Natures’ to be about the different kinds of behaviour shown by people, but the one currently on at Manchester Museum in fact deals with the ways in which humans have interacted with nature and so transformed the world. The exhibition is on until 1 November, and then will travel to Newcastle, Norwich and London over the next couple of years.
The general point of the exhibition is that nature is all around us but we have changed it. Cats, for instance, were domesticated because they controlled the mice and birds that ate grain. But now they spread disease and kill billions of animals each year, and so have played a part in the extinction of over sixty animal species. Chickens have been transformed from wild birds into a factory product, and their poo pollutes rivers.
We often speak of throwing things away, perhaps without realising that ‘away’ is a real place somewhere. So-called fast fashion is among the activities responsible for 92 million tonnes of textile waste being produced globally each year. Recycling polyester is possible, but it uses a lot of energy and natural fibres are preferable. Things have changed since Victorian days, when birds were hunted on an industrial scale so their feathers could be used in hats, but clothing still has a massive impact on nature in various ways.
People once made a habit of mending clothes, and agricultural smocks, for instance, were often mended over and over again. There is now the start of a trend towards visible mending, ‘a practical skill that combines sustainability with self-expression, allowing you to transform imperfections into eye-catching additions and extend the life of your clothes’.
Mining can of course be very damaging to the environment, and organisations such as the London Mining Network (londonmininingnetwork.org) work with groups badly affected by London-linked mining companies. On the other hand, the Wigan Flashes (lakes resulting from subsidence caused by mining) are now a National Nature Reserve and contain a variety of wetland habitats.
Recycling is not always doable but sometimes it can be unexpected: in the museum shop I bought a pen made from recycled aluminium.
PB