The well known animal art writer turned artist now shares the same dead animal subject and discusses his experiences photographing roadkill with Susan McHugh.
Spring lambs
There have been many births on Tony and Steven’s sheep farm, but also death as some lambs and ewes don’t make it. Often its the crows pecking out the eyes of the weak or in distress, or there are difficult births such as a set of large triplets, two made it out while the ewe died with the third inside. the twins subsequently died. Ewes will sometimes abandon their lamb too and Steven and Tony raise as many of the orphan lambs by bottle feeding as they can. Their neighbor’s are helping too.
The dear sweet forms of the newborn lambs are often so slight. Another dead pregnant ewe was very heavy with the baby inside, the blood streaming out of her eyes show her death was caused by the crows blinding her.
While macabre, placing the lamb suckling her also commemorates her motherly state in death and attempts to reflect the time of death, spring lambing as the weather becomes warmer.
Chough and Starling
It was the dirty end of winter when I went with Adam and Tepi out to the farm for the chough and starling to be placed on a canvas together.
Tepi had found the starling on the farm, while I had encountered the chough dieing by the roadside amidst morning traffic. His kin surrounded him calling in distress. I moved him away from further damage under a tree and the next day found him dead.
Birds print so beautifully, their feathers being conducive to ‘drawn’ edges and a clean silhouette.
ANU open day painting sale
I have these two small paintings for sale at open day to raise money for the painting department
Processing the fox shroud
The collection of the fox shroud, its soaking in vinegar and drying prior to boiling in a eucalyptus leaf tea in the old copper cauldron.
Recent Works
Working into the shrouds using ochres collected in Arnhem Land and silk thread stitching is a studio process embedding my self in the bodily sensation of a becoming animal that is the decomposed matter absorbed by the canvas. The pure pigments of earth sit raised on the woven surface while clean thread penetrates the dank weave projecting a slight shadow upon the glittering skin of rabbit glue size.
Mosman Art Prize
I have this painting snare in the Mosman prize exhibition on from 30th July – 4th September
Waterhouse Natural History Prize
The SA Museum hosts the Waterhouse prize, and as an animal artist I submitted a work.
Imagine my surprise when I was awarded first prize in the painting category!
$10,000 is now prompting me to think about Europe, visiting my Hungarian relatives for the first time.
Their passion for art and the art practices of my father’s family being foundational contributors to my choice to be an artist.
I am also enticed by the Unsound festival in Poland organised by my friend Matt Schultz, a sound art celebration originally birthed by the Wagga Wagga Space Program formed by my partner Adam Bell and others including Matt’s brother Paul a singer/songwriter, artist/writer Johannes Klabbers and curator Sarah Last.
Thank you to all the human and non-human animals without whom this prize would not exist!
Animals, People – A Shared Environment
The conference in Brisbane on beautiful Southbank exploring animal/human relations throughout multiple disciplines including the arts was a rich and rewarding experience. I met some wonderful specialists in the field including author and editor of the recent publication representing animals Nigel Rothfels. I also had the opportunity to meet both the dynamic former and current board members of AASG who are Natalie Edwards, Melissa Boyde, Leah Burns and Yvette Watt. In terms of my own research I was particularly taken by papers given by Carol Freeman and Susan Pyke. Carol Freeman presented a poetic look at the materiality of medieval books being made of animal skin, their smell and texture and the very much shared environment animals and humans had during medieval times. Susan Pyke explored, also poetically, Emile Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and its depictions of the animal through the human via beastly behaviours of the masculine unclean, unshaven gypsy-like Heathcliff contrasted with the hygienic containment of the feminine through Catherine in 18th century society. I was also interested in Yvette Watt’s talk about animal art, the question of a lack of animal agency in representations. This links to a book launched at the conference considering animals in which Yvette Watt and Steve Baker discuss the apparent tightrope animal artists who are also animal activists walk if making didactic work which may lose its power as fine art when function speaks louder than form. Baker explores the work of Angela Singer among others who recycles taxidermy explaining how artists can make powerful statements without sacrificing attention to the importance of materiality (among other aesthetic considerations). Jill Bough, who I also met, launched her book Donkey focused on the hypocritical view of Donkeys in Australia, war hero myth vs feral eradication. I was happy to discover the animal series by Reaktion Books of which this is one.
I participated in the associated exhibitions and met some of the other artists including Maria Fernanda Cardoso. Colleague in sculpture Amanda Stuart presented too. (Thanks Amanda, it was great to spend some time with a familiar face!).
Autumn 2011 shroud set
I soaked the terribly rancid echidna shroud for weeks in vinegar. After one month of decomposition Adam and I visited the animals we had set up in autumn. As the weather was colder decay had slowed down so we decided to leave them for another month before collection. I also processed the echidna shroud further by boiling it in eucalyptus leaves. It is the darkest shroud yet.
http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=104087
After 2 months Adam and I took Zephyr and Tepi out to the farm so they could run free. We had a lovely discussion with Steven about our animal art practices and PhD research then collected the shrouds. At home we processed them in vinegar, and one, the possum, in eucalyptus leaves. After removing the fox body we left the shroud at the farm so the maggots and ooze would dry. I have also placed a starling Tepi found at the farm that day on this shroud to decompose.
Laomedia 