Bishop Museum Celebrates Taxonomy Exhibition With Live-Painting by Solomon Enos

# Bishop Museum Celebrates Taxonomy Exhibition With Live-Painting by Solomon Enos

The "Taxonomy: Our Lives Depend On It" Exhibition, highlighting the Museum's Natural Sciences work and collections, closes on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023.

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum celebrates its exhibition, Taxonomy: Our Lives Depend On It, with a live-painting by Native Hawaiian artist Solomon Enos paired with a presentation by Dr. Kenneth Hayes, director of Bishop Museum's Pacific Center for Molecular Biodiversity and curator of marine malacology. The exhibition, which highlights the Museum's Natural Sciences work and collections, closes on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023.

"Hidden Biodiversity: Exploring the Unknown With Solomon Enos and Dr. Kenneth Hayes"

Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023 4-6 p.m. Bishop Museum's Gallery Lawns

Following the themes of the Taxonomy exhibition and the importance of biodiversity in sustaining life on Earth, Dr. Hayes will present on hidden biodiversity and how gaps in our knowledge impact our ability to sustain the world in which we depend. He will touch on the largely unknown world of Hawaiian tardigrades, or "water bears," and a selection of microscopic animals that make up the vast majority of life on the planet. In conjunction, Enos will do a live-painting inspired by the presentation, creating a visual interpretation of hidden biodiversity on the Museum's Gallery Lawns.

"The vast majority of Earth's biodiversity — the variety of life in the world — is unknown, unexplored, and underappreciated," said Dr. Kenneth Hayes, director of Bishop Museum's Pacific Center for Molecular Biodiversity and curator of marine malacology. "Through this presentation, we seek to recognize and appreciate the hidden biodiversity of life, and inspire others to join us in protecting the Earth's biodiversity."

"This presentation is the last of seven months of programming developed around Taxonomy, and like the exhibition weaves scientific knowledge with cultural interpretation," said Taylour Chang, Bishop Museum director of public programs and community partnerships. "I'd like to express my appreciation to Mr. Enos for joining us in the celebration of the exhibition. His visionary perspective on our natural environment and what lies beyond our current consciousness speaks to the collective work that lies beyond the closing of the exhibition. Our public programming would not have been possible without the ongoing work and dedication of my colleagues in Bishop Museum's Natural Sciences Department. Their partnership in developing the exhibition's rich and multifaceted programs have helped redefine what public programming can look like for the Museum's natural sciences collections."

Taxonomy: Our Lives Depend On It opened in Bishop Museum's J. M. Long Gallery in July 2022 and uses a variety of media including images, video, and interactives to tell stories of taxonomy — the identification and naming of plants and animals — and the people who do taxonomic work. This exhibition also showcases one of the largest displays of plants and animals representative of Bishop Museum's natural sciences collection of more than 20 million specimens, much of which is normally not accessible to the public.

"As humans, we name things to communicate to others what they are," said Richard Pyle, Ph.D., Taxonomy co-curator, Bishop Museum senior curator of Ichthyology and director of XCoRE. "Biologists use taxonomy and its Latin scientific names as a universal tool of communication worldwide. Although many may not have heard of it, the science of taxonomy is essential to conservation, agriculture, medicine and veterinary medicine, and many other aspects of our lives. This exhibition highlights Bishop Museum's more than 125-year history of discovering and naming more than 10,000 new species, by staff considered the world leaders in their respective sciences."

For more information on Taxonomy: Our Lives Depend On It, please visit the exhibition's webpage, BishopMuseum.org/Taxonomy.