Seabird Necropsy - Art Exhibition - Launch Event

Seabird Necropsy

Artist Stephen Livingstone and ornithologist Daniel Turner have worked on a number of joint projects, combining the visual arts with the natural sciences in exhibitions and talks designed to inform and to provoke discussion. For the past year Stephen has been observing Dan’s seabird dissections at Newcastle University’s Dove Marine Laboratory, responding in a series of paintings which aim to highlight the combined threats of ocean plastics and avian influenza on bird populations. 

Daniel Turner is an amateur ornithologist who has studied the gulls of the Tyne river mouth for many years. In late 2002 he instigated the Northeast England Beached Bird Surveys (NEBBS) group which he continues to coordinate. NEBBS group members survey beaches to record and collect seabirds for study purposes in relation to pollution, particularly plastics. He performs laboratory work in North East England and in the Netherlands. Dan has also acted as a surveyor and recorder of the River Tyne nesting kittiwakes since 1994 and is acting secretary of the Tyne Kittiwake Partnership. He has written and published five books of poetry and prose.

Stephen Livingstone is an artist based in the North East of England. His work deals with human impact upon landscapes and habitats and often involves collaboration with experts and academics. He has worked with many museums and institutions including the British Library, the National Trust, the Museum of Art and Design in New York and Durham University, where he was a Leverhulme Artist in Residence in the Department of Engineering and Computer Science in 2016. He is currently working on a major exhibition for the university’s Oriental Museum documenting the 1924 Mount Everest Expedition.  

Please join us for the launch at 5.30pm on Wednesday 22 November 2023.

Capacity is limited, therefore please contact enquiries.ias@durham.ac.uk for a place.