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On Evolution As the world celebrates the bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birth and the century-and-a-half of scientific progress that came in the wake of his 1859 On the Origin of Species, it is worth remembering that Darwin had neither the first nor the last word on the contentious topic of evolution. Indeed, the idea itself evolved from early roots in ancient China and the medieval Islamic Empire, through to the scientifically muddled theories of Lamarck and other modern writers who paved the way for Darwin. Since then the idea has continued to evolve hand-in-hand with developments in genetics and other advanced fields. Yet perhaps Darwin's great achievement was to really popularize the notion of evolution (despite the early misgivings of the Church), carefully setting out his Origin of Species with 'the common man' in mind. Few amongst us are biologists, nor do we have any kind of rigorous scientific triining, yet today we all speak the language of Darwinian evolution. ." Indeed, 'Survival of the fittest' must be one of the most powerful ideas of the modern age. It has been used to explain everything from stock markets and Swine flu to famine and the Holocaust. Here is a set of ideas that have gone beyond their original context to inform some of our most fundamental attitudes. After Darwin, nothing is so sacred that it is beyond question; nothing of consequence ever has nor ever can stay the same forever. The quiet self-assurance of Victorian imperial civilization has given way to a world of chaos -a world now in crisis, as finance and climate and any number of safe, containable categories explode in our faces after years of unnatural tinkering. The world is evolving, yes, and our modern institutions cannot survive this new world for long. We have a choice, to struggle against nature or to work with it, as a part of it. This is the perfect time revisit Darwin's ideas.

Darren Flint: Goldsmiths College University of London

Natural Selection 26; And God said- Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air.. and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth- 2Z. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him,- male and female created he them. Genesis 1:26-27 It may seem curious to present an exhibition of works entitled Natural Selection within the context of a church- Charles Darwin and his theory of Evolution has dominated biological science since 1859, and has sparked a global debate between science and religious faith for decades. However there are other elements of evolution at work here. Religion itself has under gone its own evolutionary changes, and one only has to look at the history of Christianity alone to see how faith has adopted different interpretations and meanings throughout its existence. One could also consider the current physical state of transition surrounding Holy Trinity church itself, as it waits for the regeneration to continue; shaping the ever-changing urban landscape. The human brain is the most complex organ that three to four billion years of natural selection on this planet have been able to produce. Art is one of the many ways that we can visualize, discuss, develop and create; processes that expand and change our understanding of the world in which we live. From naturally selected wood, carved in to the form of a dog, to the evolution of an ongoing idea or process, the diversity of both conceptual motivation and form in this exhibition opens up many questions surrounding the theory of Evolution, and our extraordinary existence upon planet Earth.

Victoria Lucas: Yorkshire Sculptors Group