Sonya Dyer: hybrida composita – The Box Exhibition

What will the waters of Plymouth Sound look like in the future? In the wake of a global climate catastrophe, can we imagine which creatures will survive and how they will adapt? This new sculpture by artist Sonya Dyer imagines a creature found in Plymouth’s waters many centuries from now.

hybrida composita is a hybrid sea creature, created by Dyer after she studied The Box’s critically endangered and near extinct marine specimens, all of which were collected, documented and preserved by scientists over a century ago.

Dyer is an artist and writer from London and a Somerset House Studios Resident. Her practice explores where the centre is located within fictional narratives of the future. She was a finalist for the Arts Foundation Futures Award 2021, and is an alum of the Whitney Museum of American Art: Independent Study Program.

Dyer’s practice explores questions about survival in a future world affected by ecological disaster. hybrida composita features a display case designed to mimic the traditional displays found in the collections, inviting us to think about how museums preserve, catalogue and exhibit the past.

Come to The Box to view this thought provoking art work.