Andy Holden & Peter Holden

Negative Capabilities is an exhibition by Andy Holden centred on a film made in collaboration with his father, the ornithologist Peter Holden. Developed over fifteen years and adapted from a series of live performances first presented at Tate Britain in 2011, the central film of the exhibition, Lecture on Birdsong (2011–2026), follows six walks undertaken within a one-mile radius of the Holdens’ home, from the end of winter through spring. The film explores the persistent human desire to understand and translate birdsong while acknowledging the limits of that endeavour.