ALL THINGS ARE CONNECTED, FABRIK

Artist Statement

Since ancient times birds have been portents, returned lost souls, or harbingers to humans trying to navigate unknowns. Birds, as Delia Falconer writes in Signs and Wonders, are ‘recognised … instinctively as the emissaries of a deep past, much older than we are’ (p. 82): they did evolve from dinosaurs.  In my life Magpies and their warblings are portals connecting to my matriarchal forebears, particularly my great-grandmother who found avian solace after her son’s drowning. This series specifically, turns to magpies as fleshy stand-ins for my lost mother, conjuring fading sentiments of companionship, safekeeping, grounded-ness, and sustaining traditions. With filled pockets, gloves, cloaks and coverings, these magpie-mothers occupy inside(s) and outsides, life and beyond. Despite grief, these are not spectral magpies but real-world embodiments of qualities which guide me, like they did my great-grandmother, of how to live amidst ongoing mourning and honour knowledges from deep pasts; birds and human.

'All things are connected', curated by Kay Lawrence and presented by Fabrik Arts + Heritage, Lobethal, SA, from 20 September to 27 October 2024.

Featuring artists: Cheryl Hutchens, Kay Lawrence, Sara Lindsay, Deborah Prior, Sonya Rankine, Aunty Ellen Trevorrow, Ema Shin, Linda Marie Walker, Sera Waters