The Natural History Museum has long been a mecca to curious-minded kids. It is the venue of choice for school trips, and family outings, and special treats in between oboe class and your best friend’s eleventh birthday party.
The Museum, however, is now facing a much harder sell. It is targeting young adults, the sort of jaded demographic who, on seeing the Diplodocus skeleton in the Central Hall, shrug and say “looks smaller than it used to”.
Cue Sexual Nature, the NHM’s first ever exhibition aimed exclusively at over-16s. This exhibition, which opened just in time for Valentine’s Day and runs till 2 October, promises to divulge nature’s “most bizarre and intimate secrets”. It plays heavily on the titillation factor. With sultry lighting and swirling typefaces, it is the closest thing to an erotic emporium there’s ever been on Exhibition Road.
One of the first things you see on entry is a video of three bonobos mid-action. Bonobos will do it any way, any time, with scant regard for the age or gender of whom they’re doing it with. Apparently their colourful sex lives diffuse aggression – more so than less orgiastic apes, they are skilled at keeping the peace.
Or how about a whole battalion of other creatures, who lack the bonobos’ eroticism but make up for it in exoticism? The male anglerfish, for example, attaches itself to the female’s body for life, becoming little more than her personal sperm bank. The male dance fly entices the female with a gift, only to have his wicked way while she’s unwrapping it. And spare a thought for the female duck, who often drowns fending off the advances of an entire gang.
There is all manner of strangeness here, not least the ‘Green Porno’ and ‘Seduce Me’ film series. In a melding of science, art and downright craziness, the films star Isabella Rosselini in an enactment of animals’ sex lives. Here we have Rosselini dressed as an elderly salmon. Here we have Rosselini shuddering in the guise of an S&M snail. It’s hard to know whether to be amused or disturbed, but there can be little doubt that you’ve been educated.
Is there anything to Sexual Nature, then, other than the thrall of nudge-wink naughtiness? Undoubtedly so – this exhibition features more than 100 real scientific specimens, its most famous being Guy the Gorilla. And it opens a vivid window into Darwinian sexual selection, explaining both why sex evolved, and how it became such a hotbed of wacky practices.
By the time you reach the homo sapiens section, humans will have come to seem pretty tame. Sexual Nature takes your anthropocentric viewpoint, and flips it upside down – no doubt a sexual practice in itself, if you’re a bonobo. Fascinating, informative and strangely touching, this exhibition will open eyes and raise some eyebrows. It’s definitely not one for the kids.
All images are from the Sexual Nature exhibition, Natural History Museum, London, 11 February - 2 October 2010. © 2010 Natural History Museum, London.
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