Birds

Installation, There Used to be Enough, 2014

15,000 hand-made flax-paper laser-cut kereru bird-shapes, strung on copper wire, hung as an installation with the 60 sheets they were cut from.

Once there was a time when there were enough kereru to feed the family. It was a time when their noisy wing-beats filled the forest and trapping was easy. Then the guns came; farmland pushed the forest back and vicious foreign predators arrived. The vulnerable and fragile position of kereru became a cause for concern. Their importance for propagation of native species was little known. Meanwhile, it appears that kereru are adapting to gardeners’ exotic berries. But… will there ever be as many as there were?

Flax Paper Laser Cutout Kereru Shapes 2014

Exploring the possibilities with hand-made flax paper variations with laser cutting.

flax paper kereru screenprint and cutout outlines

Museum-Inspired Patua Works 2014

Flax paper patua with silkscreen print of kereru

Flax-paper patua with cut out kereru shapes"A Box of Birds" — Flax-paper patua with cut out kereru shapes
"A Box of Birds"

Patua form printed with kereru and cut out"going, going, gone" — Patua form printed with kereru and cut out
"going, going, gone"

printed patua form"going, going, gone" — printed patua form
"going, going, gone"

Silkscreen Prints to Etchings 2014

Development of 3D print installation into 2D prints...

Nested book of bird prints"adrift" — Nested book of bird prints
"adrift"

silkSCREEN PRINT of nested book"Destiny" — silkSCREEN PRINT of nested book
"Destiny"

zinc plate etching"Strandlines" — zinc plate etching
"Strandlines"

zinc plate etching of patua for kereru"A distinctive sound" — zinc plate etching of patua for kereru
"A distinctive sound"

Bullers Birds Book Series, 2014

In Wanganui library in 1939, the colour plates in Bullers Birds were rubber stamped to prevent people from stealing them. To me, that seemed like a greater crime, so I tore the purple stamps out of the books and mounted them on screen printed drawings from the plates.