Group Exhibition - Extinction Collection, 31 October–17 November 2024, London. 3–14 December 2024, Norwich

The Extinction Collection showcases artworks by leading sculptors and photographers, exploring the impact of climate change across millennia. Many works feature fossils, artefacts, and materials from Happisburgh, Norfolk—the home of Explorers Against Extinction. Other pieces highlight today’s endangered species and at-risk wild spaces, inviting us to reflect on the relationship between humans, climate change, and extinction.

Happisburgh is one of the first UK communities likely to be lost to coastal erosion. The cliffs are disappearing at a rate of one metre per year, exposing sediments from the Pleistocene era (500,000–900,000 years ago). These ancient sediments hold the fossils and tools of extinct species, including mammoth, woolly rhino, and early humans. In 2013, 850,000-year-old human footprints were discovered—the oldest outside Africa—cementing Happisburgh as one of the world’s most important archaeological sites.

Artists:
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

The collection was unveiled at The Palace of Westminster on Monday 15th April 2024. It was exhibited there for 1 week.
The public exhibition tour started in June with four weeks at Nature In Art, Gloucestershire and continued with four weeks at The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh (21st September – 19th October 2024). Upcoming venues: London: gallery@OXO, 31st October – 17th November 2024 * Norwich: The Crypt Gallery, 3rd – 14th December 2024

For The Extinction Collection, Bigert & Bergstrom have created a photographic work (‘Curatorn’) depicting the crumbling cliffs at Happisburgh.