The Extinction Collection: with Explorers Against Extinction
Daniel Beltrá, Bigert & Bergström, Richard Deacon, Jon Foreman, Andy Goldsworthy, Beverly Joubert, Michael Kenna, Eleanor Lakelin, Richard Mosse, David Nash, Michael Pinsky, Peter Randall-Page, Sebastião Salgado, Conrad Shawcross, Julian Stair, Emily Young
Explorers Against Extinction has partnered with The Fine Art Society to exhibit a remarkable collection of work highlighting climate change. An invited group of artists has created work featuring fossils, artefacts, and materials from the beach at Happisburgh, Norfolk, the home of Explorers Against Extinction, a UK conservation charity working to recover key species and restore ecosystems.
Happisburgh is the site of the earliest known human occupation in the UK, dating back 900,000 years. It will be one of the first UK communities lost to coastal erosion. As its sand cliffs are eroded, relics of extinct species and early humans who lived nearly one million years ago are exposed. Fossils from mammoths, elephants and rhinos are found on the beach, together with ancient flint tools and wood from drowned forests. The collection invites us to consider the relationship between humans, climate change and extinction.
Works are offered for sale in support of Explorers Against Extinction.
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Richard Deacon CBE RALong in the Tooth (Toothmarks), 2023teeth from mammoth and elephant (c.1,500,000 – 450,000 BCE) mounted on partially fossilised wood from an ancient, flooded forest (c. 800,000 BCE) and granite pedestalseach 27 x 27 x 41-46 cm on platform -
Emily Young FRBSThe Connection - A Meeting of Minds, 2023carved 250-million-year-old clastic quarzite (Tuscany, Italy) with Homo antecessor flint hand axe (Happisburgh, Norfolk) dating to at least 600,000 years ago57 x 50 x 50 cm
plinth: 187 x 50 x 50 cm -
Peter Randall-Page RAReflection on Extinction: You don't know what you've got until its gone, 2023heel bone of a steppe mammoth (c.1,000,000 BCE) and 3D printed reverse cast of the fossil, cast in bronze and gilded gold25 x 40 x 20 cm
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David Nash OBE RAFar Away Trees, 2023800,000-year-old pine cones recovered from the sediments of Happisburgh beach, mounted on an oak base with perspex case14 x 15 x 6 cm
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Conrad Shawcross RAWithin the plane of the elliptic, 2024hand-blown glass disc pierced by a galvanised aluminium shaft, mounted Lower Palaeolithic worked flake from Happisburgh c.600,000 BCE58 x 51 x 51 cm
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Julian Stair OBEOssuary for Mammoth Ivory, 2024hand-built Happisburgh till, mammoth ivory (800,000 – 1.2 million BCE), flux and mineralised bone (800,000 BCE)8 x 22 x 14 cm
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Julian Stair OBEOssuary for Megafauna, 2024hand-built Oestend Till, contemporary flora ash; southern mammoth tooth, c.1,200,000 BCE; steppe mammoth tooth fragment, c.8000,000 BCE; cave bear jaw, c.1,500,000 to 1,200,000 BCE; straight-tusked elephant tooth fragment, c.400,000 BCE; fragment of woolly mammoth skull, c.40,000 BCE; steppe/southern mammoth tusk fragment, c.1,000,000 BCE15 x 39 x 29 cm
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Julian Stair OBEOssuary for a Rhinoceros, 2024thrown Happisburgh till, mineralised rhinoceros bones (800,000 to 1,200,000 BCE), wood ash shadow from contemporary flora11.5 x 21 x 21 cm
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Julian Stair OBEOssuary for a Twig, 2024hand-built Happisburgh till, fragment of wood (800,000 BCE), flux and mineralised bone (800,000 BCE)5 x 10 x 7.5 cm
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Julian Stair OBEOssuary for Fir Cones, 2024thrown Happisburgh till, fir cones (800,000 BCE), natural flint, flux8 x 13 x 13 cm
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Julian Stair OBEOssuary for a Horse Bone Fragment, 2024thrown Ostend till, mineralised horse bone (c. 400,000 BCE), natural flint, flux and wood (800,000 BCE)11.5 x 16 x 16 cm
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Eleanor LakelinPine Studies 1, 2024875 000 BCE pine found at Happisburgh beach; cast pine rosin; pine pitch glue (charcoal from Happisburgh pine and melted rosin); linseed oil/turpentine finish56 x 29 x 29 cm
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Eleanor LakelinPine Studies 2, 2024875 000 BCE pine found at Happisburgh beach; cast pine rosin; pine pitch glue (charcoal from Happisburgh pine and melted rosin); linseed oil/turpentine finish36 x 23 x 23 cm
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Jon ForemanStone Moon, 2024land art created from red sandstone collected at Freshwater West, recreating 'Clay Moon', 2023, Happisburgh200 cm diameter
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Jon ForemanClay Moon, 2024signed and numberedprinted still from filmed construction of land art created from clay sediments eroded from the cliffs at Happisburghedition of 1029.5 x 22 cm
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Andy Goldsworthy OBECutting Stone, 2023signed, titled, dated and numbered in pencil to marginprinted still from video artworks created in Dumfriesshire, using ancient Happisburgh flints and Scottish ironstoneedition of 514 x 25 cm
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Andy Goldsworthy OBECrushed Red River Stone Splash, 2023signed, titled, dated and numbered in pencil to marginprinted still from video artworks created in Dumfriesshire, using ancient Happisburgh flints and Scottish ironstoneedition of 514 x 25 cm
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Michael PinskyMammoth, 2023signed and numberedprinted triptych of stills from video filmed at Happisburgh and Bikini Atoll in The Marshall Islands, South Pacific, featuring fragments of Southern and steppe mammoth teeth (c. 1,500,000 – 800,000 BCE)edition of 1029 x 54 cm each
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Daniel BeltráIceland #5, Hvita River, July 2014, 2014signed, edition 4/8chromogenic printedition of 8101 x 152 cm
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Sebastião SalgadoBrooks Range, Alaska, USA, 2009signedargentic photographic print60 x 50 cm
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Richard MosseLog Barges, Santarem, Brazil, 2014edition 4/5archival pigment printedition of 5 + 2 APs161 x 71 cm
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Michael KennaHuangshan Mountains, Study 31 (Anhui, China), 2009signed, edition 5/45silver halide printedition of 4520 x 20 cm
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Beverly JoubertWater Lord, 2009signed, edition 1/10photographic print on textured silk Fine Art archival paperedition of 1051 x 81 cm
