The Shadow World

Walker & Bromwich

In their new commission for Perth Museum and Art Gallery, artists Walker & Bromwich have created a dark site of contemplation in which silhouettes of once common local mammals are cast across the gallery. Suggestive of cave paintings and mythological underworlds, this installation provides a glimpse of possible future loss.

The Shadow World contains delicate evocations of endangered animals, questioning what will be left without positive change and intervention. These animals are drawn from The Red List Scottish Mammals, each threatened with extinction from habitat loss and disruption to food chains through changing land use, pesticides and human behaviour.

This installation is an uncomfortable suggestion of the near future when these endangered mammals are lost, existing instead in memory and trace.

Red Fox

Foxes can be common in the lowlands where there is plenty of prey. A decline in numbers has been recorded in recent years linked to hunting and a reduction in the rabbit population.

Otter

Scotland is a European stronghold for the otter. As polluted rivers and waterways have been cleaned the otter has flourished. The main threat is road accidents on our busy roads.

Wildcat

The wildcat was once found across mainland Britain but nearly became extinct and is now only found in northern Scotland. Its biggest threat is interbreeding with domestic cats.

Nathusius’ Pipistrelle Bat

This species is a bit bigger than the common pipistrelle and can fly large distances between summer and winter roosts. There is a lack of knowledge about the species which although rare might have been living unrecognised in Britain for decades.

Polecat

Polecats were once common, but they were hated and killed as vermin, becoming extinct in Scotland by the early 20th century. Since the 1980s polecats have been secretly released in Perthshire and they are now living in the wild. The local population is not pure polecat and includes many polecat-ferret hybrids.

Red Squirrel

The red squirrel is one of Britain’s best loved mammals. It was once common across Britain, but Scotland is now the stronghold for the species. Today it is threatened by the spread of the grey squirrel, a species introduced from North America that has been present in Scotland since 1892.

Hedgehog

Hedgehogs are one of Scotland’s best loved mammals and are still regularly seen in Perthshire gardens. Unfortunately, they are disappearing from our countryside due to loss of habitat, road deaths and becoming prey to badgers and foxes.

Eurasian Beaver

Prized for their fur and scent glands, beavers were hunted to extinction and disappeared from Scotland about 400 years ago. The beaver is now back, reintroduced to Scotland in 2009. Perth has become the first City in Britain to have resident beaver families living on the riverbanks.

Harvest Mouse

Now found from Yorkshire southward these small mice were historically present in Southern Scotland. Changes in habitat and farming practice are thought to be the main reasons for their decline.

Water Vole

Once a common sight on Perth’s Town Lade the species is now extinct there. Water vole populations have declined making it one of Scotland’s most threatened native mammals. Habitat loss and predation by non-native American mink have contributed to this dramatic decline.

Mountain Hare

Living camouflaged amongst heather moorland this hare’s brown summer coat turns white in winter. But with climate change the period of snow cover on the hills is decreasing and the white hares are exposed to their predators.

Orkney Vole

This unique sub-species of common vole has developed over thousands of years on Orkney. Populations are thought to be declining and the recent arrival of a new predator to Orkney, the stoat, is causing concern.

Wild Boar

Extinct in Scotland by 1800. In the 1980s wild boar farming began and a few individuals escaped starting new populations. The rooting and digging of boar in woodland and marsh disturbs the ground creating new habitat and new opportunities for biodiversity.

Leisler’s Bat

Little is known about Scotland’s second largest bat species. New research is revealing that it seems to prefer the southwest. Lack of knowledge about the species means that we don’t know how to protect it.

Eurasian Lynx

Once resident in Scotland, the lynx is thought to have become extinct in Britain around 1,300 years ago. Whilst some conservationists are looking to reintroduce Lynx to Scotland the idea faces heavy opposition because of the threat to farm livestock.

European Wolf

The wolf was hunted to extinction in Scotland by the 1700s. Introducing predators, such as wolves, would help to reduce the number of deer and pine forests could recover. But there is concern that predators would be dangerous. They might kill livestock and attack people.

Walker & Bromwich

Glasgow-based collaborative duo Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich are known for their large-scale iconic sculptural works, participatory events and exhibitions that invite audiences to imagine better worlds. At the core of their approach is the exploration of the role art can play as an active agent in society in transforming thinking in relation to how we live in the world around us.

Walker & Bromwich have presented work at MCA Sydney; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art; Tate Britain; V&A, London; Glasgow International; Edinburgh Art Festival, ACCA, Melbourne; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; SEA + Triennale Jakarta, Thessaloniki Biennale, Greece. As well as expansive public commissions such as Celestial Radio 2002-13 and the Workers Maypole for Great Exhibition of the North 2018.

www.walkerandbromwich.org.uk