BEGINNINGS, 2003
Between 1999 and 2006 Gilbart was artist-in-residence in the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Cambridge. The outstanding palaeontological collections there, including those from Darwin’s Beagle expedition were pivotal. Gilbart produced two collections of work: Beginnings and The Sedgwick Tapes.
Beginnings formed Gilbart’s first residency exhibition held in the University’s Sedgwick Museum amongst the permanent palaeontological collections. It celebrated the museum’s reopening in 2003 after major renovations.
Beginnings focuses in the ancient PreCambrian period. Relatively little is known of this great underbelly of prehistory that spans seven-eighths of the Earth’s existence in which most of the key components for life was laid down. Gilbart tracked a few of the countless breathtaking, innovations in evolution: some pivotal to the subsequent route taken towards life as we know it, others less so.