British naturalist and explorer John Whitehead collected several birds in the Philippines and explored the forests and highlands of Mindoro, Northern Luzon, and Visayas in 1893-1896. In 1895, he lost a hundred birdskins when the London-bound steamer S.S. Weiland caught fire off Singapore. He dutifully returned to the island of Samar to replace his lost collection. On this repeat expedition, he fortuitously collected a specimen of the great Philippine eagle, which was later named Pithecophaga jefferyi after his father and sponsor, Jeffrey Whitehead.
What would Whitehead’s Ark look like?
Mica Cabildo undertook a ten-week residency at Gasworks London/UK in early 2020 to research on John Whitehead and his Philippine ornithological discoveries. Through a rediscovery of the Whitehead specimens, a thorough reading of his field-notes, and comparison with contemporary methods, Mica intended to create a “Whitehead’s Ark” that can speak about loss of biodiversity, threat of mass extinction, and the imbalance of power behind scientific discovery, conservation, and survival.