Bird Island

Woodcut and Relief on paper
1120 x 817mm framed
Edition 4/14

Also available unframed - $3200

New Zealand’s wild pigs — commonly referred to as “Captain Cookers” — continue to have an impact on our environment. Accounts written by Joseph Banks, the botanist on board HMS Endeavour, describes an environment dense with birdsong and ecological activity. In contrast, the relative silence experienced in many of these places today is stark and humbling.

In this work, the Captain Cooker is transformed into a feathered boar’s head, creating a symbolic connection between introduced predators and the reduction of avian life. The hybrid form references the relationship between birdsong and the health of the forest environment, suggesting an ecosystem shaped by disturbance, predation, and silence.

The work also reflects on the artist’s rural upbringing within a culture shaped by farming, hunting, shooting, and trapping. While these traditions formed an important part of early life, they have increasingly become a point of reflection and reconsideration, particularly in relation to ideas surrounding the archetypal masculine New Zealand identity.

Formally, the work draws on the visual language of cheaply reproduced posters and public notices. By layering a single additional colour over the black key block, the image evokes methods of rapid print production historically used to distribute information and propaganda. The composition intentionally recalls historical “Wanted: Dead or Alive” posters, connecting histories of pursuit and eradication with contemporary ecological and cultural tensions.