Dynamic Image: Beatriz da Costa - A Memorial for the Still Living

Artist and photographer Beatriz da Costa has recently done an installation about endangered species, which has been featured on Art Catalyst:
"A Memorial for the Still Living is a contemporary art installation which confronts visitors with the reality of British species threatened with extinction. It is a continuation of da Costa’s investigation into interspecies.  Her interest here is to confront visitors with the only mode of encounter left once a species has grown extinct: the description, image, sound or taxidermed shell of a once thriving organism. However, rather than focusing on already extinct species, da Costa’s focus is on the ‘still living’; species that have been classified as being under threat, but which still stand a chance for survival if immediate action is taken."

It is another way that the subject of endangered animals has been approached - to make people aware that animals are becoming extinct. What da Costa is doing is making people realise that if these animals become extinct, which, undoubtedly, many will, the only way people will be able to see/know about these animals would be stuffed in a museum - " The possibility of an encounter ‘in the flesh’ will have disappeared, with humans reduced to studying preserved examples of each species.'

In order to do this she worked with collection curators at the Horniman Museum and the Natural History Museum in London. Central to her installation are taxidermed specimens of endangered animals alongside preserved botanical samples of plants under threat. Each specimen has been given a ‘birth date’ (the date of classification and inclusion into the corpus of western science) as well as a ‘death date’ (the date of projected extinction).

To accompany the exhibition there is also a interactive website/Iphone App so audiences can browse and find out themselves what British species are most endangered: