Birdseed…review by Wendy Day
I visited Cairns in May 2009, and came across an interesting exhibition at the Cairns Regional Art Gallery which was titled, “This is Cassowary Country” , and all artists participating were asked to represent in their work, images and perspectives to increase public understanding of the cassowary, and in particular, “…the plight of the endangered cassowary…” . Because the birds’ natural habitat of tropical rainforest is being reduced through land clearing, the cassowary numbers are also in decline.
The gallery’s description of a cassowary gives a clear indication of what a special creature this is; “… Casuarius casuarius johnsonii or Southern Cassowary, is a tall, flightless bird measuring up to the height of a grown human male, with a high helmet on its head, a vivid blue neck and long drooping red wattles”. My personal interest stems from my own two encounters with a cassowary; close enough for me to duck for cover. They are glorious birds but rather intimidating. I decided to make one of the entries the focus of my art review.
Birdseed, Cassowary Country Collection
The work I have chosen to review is titled Bird Seed by local artist Gerhard Hillmann, and his entry plus the description with his work, I believe, fulfilled the requirement to increase public awareness of this beautiful creature; it certainly increased my understanding. In Hillmann’s words:“This bird is created out of the very things it eats and needs to survive. Many seeds and fruits in this artwork were found in a cassowary scat (poo) on the Kuranda range. There is no separation between the Cassowary and the environment it inhabits. This big bird plays an important role distributing the seeds of the forest where ever it goes. Some of the fruits the cassowary eats are too toxic for other animals to eat.The cassowary helps instigate the germination of fruit trees it and other animals are dependant on. It also maintains biodiversity of many plant species within cassowary country”.
The style he used to create his entry, is “Organic Photo Montage…” , combining traditional fine art skills in photography, with digital technology; in particular a flatbed scanner, with which he captured the desired textures of nature. Hillmann combined these textures, layer upon layer, until he achieved the final artwork, which I and many others viewed as Bird Seed.
What were my personal reactions to Hillmann’s entry in 2009? In my case the following words in the tutorial are probably apt, “…language cannot always convey as efficiently what the eye can see” . I did not think about art reviewing in 2009 beyond that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I appreciated the colours; they are my colours, and the topic was dear to my heart; conservation. There was something else which I could not interpret, but because of it the work stayed with me. After reading in the tutorial, “…art is an experience. The successful work of art presents the sensitive beholder with a unified experience that is meaningful on its own terms”,
I understood more clearly.
