Assuming the Greek gods are immortal and therefore have a continued presence, artist Marian Maguire wonders: would they do things differently? Would they stay the same and maintain the status quo or would they choose to change, if they could see us now? Would they stay, or would they walk away?
Botanical illustration is often admired for its beauty and accuracy, which can mask the ways in which the plant was acquired in the first place and the brutality of the war and violence which enabled the plant to be seen, studied, collected and painted.
In the collage Woven Histories, Claire O'Brien weaves together the Fitzwilliam Museum's beautiful watercolour of the plant josephinia imperatricis, named for the French Empress Joséphine, with a commanding image of Joséphine's husband Napoleon Bonaparte. It's impossible to see one without the other.
What can the botany-loving Empress Joséphine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, tell us about the relationship between science and empire?
Helen Grundy's artwork Josephine Hybrid is inspired by a botanical watercolour in the Fitzwilliam Museum by Pierre-Joseph Redouté. The watercolour depicts the plant josephinia imperatricis, named after Empress Joséphine. In this collage, Helen splices together josephinia imperatricis with a portrait of its namesake.
Finch and Baines, both trained physicians, met while studying at Cambridge in the 1640s. They were inseparable throughout a relationship that lasted 36 years, and were buried together in a joint monument in Christ's College.
Katy Whitaker's Asylum Zine is inspired by a pair of 18th-century spectacles in the Whipple Museum of the History of Science and the questions they raise around definitions of disability, how these change over time, and who gets to decide who is disabled and who not.
The zine, or mini magazine, is comprised of layers of a historical Ordnance Survey, text from Historic England's National Heritage List for England (seemingly "objective" and "official" records) and contrasts two institutions for patients with mental ill-hea
In July 2020, the Museum Remix: Unheard project challenged the world to creatively reinterpret objects from the University of Cambridge Museums as 2D visual artworks.
Visit our virtual exhibition, curated by artist Lucian Stephenson, to find out more...