NatSCA Online Conference 2020: Decolonising Natural Science Collections

Second session:
Decolonise! Activations of natural history collections by international contemporary artists
Dr Bergit Arends, University of Bristol

Nowhere else is the encounter between Western science and the cultures of non-European peoples so evident than in the collections of European museums. These encounters are reflected in the collecting practices, the archiving and documenting, the conservation of objects and in the ordering systems through which these artefacts are interpreted. Bit in Western museums we need to learn how to recognise and how to acknowledge these encounters.

Museum collections are sources of both cultural and environmental knowledge (Thomas, 2018), particularly natural science collections. Moreover, taxonomic systems of the past, particularly in the natural sciences, are now considered to be one of the most important resources for understanding the interconnections of science and culture (Browne, 1989). How can historic collections be mobilised to address contemporary issues? How can the natural sciences be understood as cultural practice? How can the violence of past scientific practices be acknowledged in natural history museums?

I discuss how artists challenged historic and contemporary scientific and collection care practices. In the international artists’ residency programme (2010-2013) at the Natural History Museum London, Daniel Boyd (Australia), Hu Yun (China), and Sunjo D (India) used the collections to explore shared histories and to research scientific practices. The artists engaged with the collections’ provenance, bureaucracy, access and visibility, and the collection objects themselves to create public displays. I discuss their works through the impetus for decolonisation, referring to revisiting institutional taxonomies, scientific and collection care practices and colonial impositions while speaking out for cultural multiplicity and recognition. The programme worked with artefacts, histories, the museum, and communities. I present how strategies to decolonise collections though contemporary art can be derived from this programme.

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