Jean w Duncan

In the Lamb Gallery University of Dundee.

12th of May to 25th July 2025

The exhibition is open Monday-Friday 9.30am-7pm (last entry 5pm). 

At a time when questions about climate change are both critical and contested, this exhibition explores the environmental and social significance of water. Why are we having more extreme floods? Are our rivers polluted? Is our drinking water supply safe? The exhibition presents a series of artworks in response to these themes, alongside historic environmental records from the University Archives and related art and artefacts from the Museum Collections.

Diatoms and Microplastics. 

This series of prints to illustrate concerns about how pollution affects our water courses and the increasing presence of microplastics. The designs are abstracted microscopic images from the museum collection of salt and freshwater diatoms collected in Tayside between 1930 and 1970. 

Diatoms are single celled phytoplankton that live in water: studying the concentration of different forms of diatoms in water courses provides a helpful marker for the identification of pollutants. Diatoms remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis which is then converted into oxygen and released into the atmosphere. Scientists estimate 20 to 50 percent of the oxygen we breathe is produced by diatoms. 

Tangle

Screenprint and Monoprint