The artworks in the Caldera Environment exhibition at the Tweed Regional Gallery, Murwillumbah, NSW, Australia
Image 1
Name: Nevermore
Artist: Kim Godfrey
Year: 2017
Size: Width 52 cm x Height 40 cm x Depth 5cm
Medium: watercolour/mixed media on canvas/assemblage with found objects
Price: $1,250.00
Photography: Kim Godfrey Art
Description: PIED OYSTERCATCHER-ENDANGERED NATIVE
In NSW the pied oystercatcher is thinly scattered along the east coast with fewer than 200 pairs left breeding in the state. I have seen a pair on the Tweed River in 2017. They nest on coastal or estuarine beaches-sometimes salt marshes or grassy areas. They forage for molluscs, worms, crabs and small fish with their beaks used to break open oysters, shells and other shellfish. This shorebird lays two or three eggs in shallow scrapes in the sand and lures intruders from its nest with injury-feigning distraction display. Ravens predate on unattended eggs.
The raven, sometimes seen as a symbol of impending death (the colour black can also represent this), is seen in the images as a literal and metaphoric possibility of the extinction of the shorebirds. In his poem, The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe writes:
“other friends have flown before, then the bird said ‘nevermore’
Other symbols used in this image include eyes, a plane, sun, circles and moon to suggest the natural cycles of life – uninterrupted by humanity. Children’s building blocks, plastic vegetable and fruit sacks, letters and text suggest urban development and the interruption of the natural cycle and diversity of life.
The bird’s habitats are finite. Birds are a litmus test to the health of the earth. They are our modern “canaries”. It is therefore important for us in this region to maintain the integrity of this fragile ecosystem for all interrelated life forms, not just for our own use and pleasure.
Image 2
Name: Don’t disturb me and my clutch of three.
Artist: Kim Godfrey
Year: 2017
Size: Width 65cm x Height 40cm x Depth 5cm
Medium: watercolour/mixed media on canvas/assemblage with found objects
Price: $1,250.00
Photography: Kim Godfrey Art
Description: LITTLE TERN-ENDANGERED NATIVE
The little turn plunges into shallow water to get small fish from just below the surface. They breed in a scrape in the sand or shell debris on coastal beaches and river mouths usually just above the high tide mark. Breeding pairs have suffered serious decline caused by beachgoers, dogs and vehicles intruding on breeding grounds. Once disturbed they may lose eggs to heat or predators like foxes and ravens. A predatory fox, although a native in some bio diverse areas of the world is not a native to our shores as is ‘man’s best friend’- the dog. Both can unknowingly disturb a nesting bird. It takes only 30 minutes of the parent bird to be off its nest for the embryo in the egg to fry in the hot sun and die. The raven, a native to our shores is a watchful predator and will prey on unattended nests.
As in all the other works in this series the assemblage process utilised constructs a narrative concerning the challenges the birds encounter and aims to reflect these concerns by the use of representation and symbolism. Included are objects such as identification ‘tags” to mimic scientific data collections, yet the work extends beyond scientific inquiry to include the children’s building blocks that belie our naïve belief that the constructed encroachment of humanity does no harm to shorebirds and their natural habitat.
Image 3
Name: No tree-no me
Artist: Kim Godfrey
Year: 2017
Size: Width 60cm x Height 32 cm x Depth 6cm
Medium: watercolour/mixed media on canvas/assemblage with found objects
Price: $1,250.00
Photography: Kim Godfrey Art
Description: RED TAILED BLACK COCKATOO-DECLINING NATIVE
The cockatoo lives and breeds in pairs. They nest in decayed debris in tree hollows. Their environment has become restricted due to habitat modification and clearing with the loss of large trees in this area. They are seasonally nomadic-part-migratory moving around due to seasonal food availability. Foods favoured are seeds especially of eucalypts, casuarinas, acacias, and banksias as well as berries, nectar, flowers and sometimes insects and larvae.
Included in this image are objects such as building blocks that were juxtaposed with the watercolour images by trail and error to create a harmonious and aesthetic effect. They represent urban development and the loss of habitat for the cockatoos that belies our childish naivety in thinking we are not doing harm to shorebirds. The blocks also represent symbols of our children’s future alluding to the fact that it is not ‘child’s play.’ Our children are the ones that have to live with the consequences of our naivety in not addressing climate change and urban encroachment on natural habitats.
Image 4
Name: I see you looking at me
Artist: Kim Godfrey
Year: 2017
Size: Width 60cm x Height 40 cm x Depth 6 cm
Medium: watercolour/mixed media on canvas/assemblage with found objects
Price: $1,250.00
Photography: Kim Godfrey Art
Description: BUSH STONE CURLEW-DECLING NATIVE
Nocturnal and ground dwelling with a haunting sound at night the bush stone curlew feeds mainly on insects, molluscs, small lizards, seeds and occasionally small mammals. Eggs are laid in a shallow scrape in the ground. Three live in the garden across the road from me. Like some of the other shorebirds they were once quite common but declining due to loss of natural habitat and predation by domestic and feral cats and foxes.
Modern society seemingly sees the constructed world and the natural world as a mosaic of disconnected fragments rather than an integrated whole and I am aiming to reflect this idea in this and the other artworks. The work also draws heavily on my own sense of aesthetics developed over decades that is driven by my interest in contemporary art and the diversity of practices found in the arts that utilise found objects and assemblage to create artworks. I have therefore used the children’s blocks as not only an aesthetic device but to symbolise urban development that displaces the shorebirds from their natural habitats. I have also used a red fruit and vegetable sack stretched over parts of the fox image to represent the danger of predators as well as the danger of man made plastics to native birds.
Image 5
Name: Sea Change/(See Change)
Artist: Kim Godfrey
Year: 2017
Size: Width 60cm x Height 47cm x 5 cm
Medium: watercolour/mixed media on canvas/assemblage with found objects
Price: $1,250.00
Photography: Kim Godfrey Art
Description: BAR TAILED GODWIT-ENDANGERED, MIGRATORY
Bar tailed godwits breed in Siberia/Alaska Tundra region. They are a summer migrant to Australia that feed in tidal mud-flats but scarce in this area. Loss of habitat being tidal mudflats and estuaries, and shallow river margins in Australia and on their flight path to and from breeding grounds to feeding grounds, are a danger to this bird. They are the world record holders for non-stop flight travelling over 11,000 km where they lose half their body weight. Travelling this distance in a very short time-just over a week, they will need to recuperate and feed in our local mudflats as soon as they arrive.
“It is the distancing and separation of humankind from the natural world, the sense of superiority to other living beings, that enables us to perpetuate the mistaken notion that we are not subject to the same laws that govern the rest of life on earth.”
David Suzuki, Time to Change.
My interest in wilderness and wildlife areas inspires me to want to see changes in humanities displacement of these fragile natural habitats not only in our immediate environment but on a global scale.
Included in the artwork are children’s building blocks, plastic vegetable and fruit sacks and text that suggest the development of humanity and the interruption of the natural cycle and diversity of life. It is a mistake to think we are not responsible for the wellbeing of our shorebirds. We have the responsibility to create a sustainable future for our children to experience the mutual connectedness between all species.
Image 6
Name: Cross Currents
Artist: Kim Godfrey
Year: 2017
Size: Width 65cm x height x 45 cm x Depth 5cm
Medium: watercolour/mixed media on canvas/assemblage with found objects
Price: $1,250.00
Photography: Kim Godfrey Art
Description: EASTERN OSPREY-VULNERABLE NATIVE
The Eastern Osprey is a coastal bird that breeds and lives in pairs on the Tweed coast and there is possibly only 10 pairs in the area. It dives torpedo like in waterways patrolling the coast and river looking for prey, mostly medium sized live fish (that it rips apart to eat.)
Overfishing and fishing lines, nets and hooks are a hazard to this raptor. They are frequently faithful to a nest site using the site year after year. The nest is made from sticks and driftwood and lined with grass and seaweed. It becomes huge after years and usually placed on a cliff, a dead tree or a radio mast or power pole. The Tweed council has built artificial nesting platforms for them to breed, which they will readily use. However many young ospreys become entangled in nets or seaweed and drown or are affected by contaminated fish from pesticides that leach into our waterways.
The assemblage techniques used in this image makes use of children’s building blocks and text along with plastic vegetable and fruit sacks to suggest the interruption of the natural cycle and diversity of life with the consumer practice of urban development and use of plastics.
As David Suzuki said in his book Time to Change:
“we have to imagine the kind of world we want and then work to create it………imagine our children growing up in a world without the songs of birds…….”
Imagine not seeing the magnificence of a raptor flying above you and then swooping to catch its prey.
I recently saw a pair in January 2016 circling above me near the mouth of the Tweed River and was inspired to paint them. To date they are still active around the mouth of the Tweed River.
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