Marcus Coates’ plaster sculptures take the form of different animal species whose extinctions were caused by humans. The artist has cast his own hands in poses that playfully recreate an approximation of the animal in its imagined shadow; each is a sincere and studied memorial of a lost species. For Coates, this is an attempt to summon these animals back into life, with an implicit recognition of the futility of this resurrection. He says ‘the most we can know these animals is as relics of our own imagination.’ Amongst others, Coates represents or ‘summons’ the following animals: The Moa, a huge ostrich like bird that was hunted to extinction in New Zealand. The flightless Great Auk, which once lived on rocky outcrops in the Atlantic and numbered millions. It was easy prey for European ships whose sailors clubbed them to death in their thousands for food, oils and feathers. And the Laughing Owl, whose haunting call will never be heard again.