Times 2 - UK (2020-07-31)

10 1GT Friday July 31 2020 | the times

exhibition

COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM CORNWALL

is monstrous. These specimens

are certainly no stranger than the

creatures that surface in lurid

sci-fi films. Besides, aren’t these

Hollywood monsters in their own way

also somehow real? They are monsters

of the mind. What is real and what is

fake? What is manufactured, what is

natural? This is a show to plumb the

imagination. For the adults it might

be almost as philosophical as it is

fun for the kids.

“hands” of that manatee are so human

that it’s easy to think that they might

have been mermaids’. Examine the

fangtooth fish or the vampire squid,

the dumbo octopus or the ghost shark.

These biological specimens are just

some of the hundreds of bizarre

creatures that, with technological

advances, have been dragged up

from the deep ocean bed.

But are there monsters down there

too? That depends on what you think

marked one as other than a worm,

to become a brainless, senseless thing

that was a fish — this is sheer fiction,

beyond all belief unless we have seen

the proof of it.”

The tale of the anglerfish is just one

tiny element of Monsters of the Deep,

the most ambitious exhibition staged

at the National Maritime Museum

in Falmouth. Models and videos

and bits of old movies, immersive

installations and biological specimens,

not to mention an entire freak

show (a modern-day take on the

Wunderkammer created by the

eccentric Viktor Wynd) are all brought

together to lure boggling spectators

into realms that are haunted by

monsters, real and imagined.

This is a show packed with marvels.

A handful of these are cultural

treasures. The 1491 Hortus Sanitatis,

for instance, on loan from Cambridge

University Library, is one of the first

natural encyclopaedias

compiled. Many of the

creatures it depicts are

easily recognisable —

although a few of

their functions seem

somewhat far-

fetched; crocodile

ointment to cure

wrinkled skin sounds

decidedly paradoxical.

Yet, alongside the

familiar, and described

with the same solemn

authenticity, are griffins and

krakens and shrieking mandrakes, not

to mention a variety of improbable

fishes. In medieval times, apparently,

it was believed that every terrestrial

creature had its marine counterpart,

which means that the monkfish that

some medieval artist has carefully

illustrated is rather different from the

one that your local fishmonger sells. It

has a tonsured human head. The sea

bishop, meanwhile, has a mitre and,

according to legend, would make the

sign of the cross if it were released.

The scientific and the supernatural

run side by side in this encyclopaedic

volume. The same can be said of this

show. At one moment you will find

yourself gazing upwards at a killer

whale skeleton that arcs through an

aerial space, or looking at biological

specimens or learning of the birth of

oceanography, or finding a scale

replica of Boaty McBoatface. At the

next you will be stepping into a striped

fairground tent to goggle at a mermaid.

What is the difference between fact

and fantasy? Look at a whale skull.

Can’t you now imagine why people

would have believed in dragons? The

Y

ou won’t find a whole

lot of fine art in this

show. But you will

discover a fantastical

gallimaufry of objects

— not to mention so

many riveting facts

and outlandish

fictions that you are perfectly likely

to become an Ancient Mariner-style

figure, waylaying unsuspecting

strangers with your fabulous tales. I

know because I took two 11-year-olds

along and the pair of them couldn’t

talk about anything else for the

entire journey home.

Here, to give you a taste of Monsters

of the Deep, the new exhibition at the

National Maritime Museum, Cornwall,

is the story that most captured my

attention. It’s a deep-sea romance

set in our planet’s most inhospitable

habitat: the cold gloom of an Atlantic

abyss. Our lovely heroine is a female

anglerfish that, boasting some

pretty flashy dentistry and

a fabulous figure (she

can swallow pieces of

food that are twice

her size), dons her

most flamboyant

headgear and sallies

forth in search of

a lover, emitting

thick clouds of

pheromonal scent.

Our hero, with his

lovely big eyes and truly

enormous nostrils (the largest

in proportion to his head of any living

creature, apparently), is charmed. It’s a

swipe to the right on ceratioid Tinder,

but how does their relationship

develop from then on?

The male anglerfish is rather clingy,

apparently. Once he has found his

partner, he bites into her belly, latches

on, then waits while his body fuses

with hers. Now he no longer need

trouble himself with eating, swimming

— or even looking about. The eyes,

fins and several internal organs of

this piscine couch potato atrophy,

degenerate and wither away. He

becomes little more than a fleshy

lump, provided with food by his wife

in return for producing his sperm

whenever she feels ready to spawn.

What an image! William Beebe, the

American naturalist, was certainly

struck. In 1938 he wrote: “But to be

driven by impelling odor headlong

upon a mate so gigantic, in such

immense and forbidding darkness,

and willfully eat a hole in her soft

side, to feel the gradually increasing

transfusion of her blood through

one’s veins, to lose everything that

This show will

grab you by

the tentacles

You can dodge krakens, mermaids and

the vampire squid in this fun jamboree,

writes Rachel Campbell-Johnston

Top: 1815 Collosal

Polypus octopus and

ship. Above: poster for

a 1957 film. Left: orca

killer whale skeleton

Four museums and galleries to visit

Walker Art Gallery,

Liverpool

Alongside its stellar

collection of pre-

Raphaelite paintings,

the gallery presents a

new retrospective of

Linda McCartney’s

photography opening

on August 8, with more

than 200 images

charting the music

scene of the 1960s and

family life with Paul.

liverpoolmuseums.org.

uk/walker-art-gallery

Bill Brandt/Henry

Moore, The Hepworth

Wakefield

From Blitz victims to

dust-coated miners

and the relics of

Stonehenge, the Bill

Brandt/Henry Moore

exhibition traces the

intersecting careers of

these two influential

20th-century artists.

Reopening on August 1,

the exhibition has been

extended until

November 1. Advance

booking recommended.

hepworthwakefield.org

Hangars and

exhibitions, National

Museum of Flight

Visit Scotland’s

national aviation

museum, housed in the

original wartime

buildings of RAF East

Fortune in East

Lothian, the UK’s best-

preserved Second

World War airfield.

Bookings open for free

today to the airfield and

Concorde hangar

between August 5 and

16; paid entry will

resume on August 17

with the opening of

additional hangars.

nms.ac.uk/national-

museum-of-flight

Modern Masters

Women, The Scottish

Gallery

The new exhibition in

this elegant Georgian

gallery in Edinburgh

celebrates pioneering,

persistent and creative

women artists at the

end of the 19th century.

Open by appointment

only from Tuesday to

Friday and for walk-ins

on Saturdays between

11am and 1pm.

scottish-gallery.co.uk

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