Australian Magpie Taking the Auspices of Bimblebox, 2014, Linoprint & emboss, Sue Pickford.
Australian Magpie.
Poem: Morning Stroll by Valerie Volk (recorded by Julia Wakefield).
Music: Australian Magpie by Hillary Kleinig on Cello.
Audio compiled and mixed by Boyd.
Bird Species: 6
Australian Magpie
Artist: Sue Pickford (Brisbane, Qld, Australia)
Writer: Valerie Volk (Adelaide, Qld, Australia)
Musician: Hillary Kleinig (Adelaide, Qld, Australia)
Poem:
Morning Stroll
Black and white gentlemen, trotting self-importantly
across the green swards of the lawn
as water plays, cascading from my hose.
They wait the foolish worms who,
suffering delusions of rain falling,
rise to greet the spray.
One stroller cocks his head; eye glitters,
and he swoops.
The others mutter grievances
then rise to trees to carol in the new-fledged sun.
Valerie Volk ©
Australian Magpie call description supplied to musician Hilary Kleinig:
Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle (Dennis Glover). Rich and varied carolling has notes ranging from high and clear to deep and mellow. Often others of group join in as a duet or chorus. In alarm, loud, harsh ‘squaark! (Morcombe and Stewart)
Sue Pickford, Artist Statement:
The Australian Magpie – Carbon Candidate – Bimblebox
The Australian Magpie – a black and white bird for a black on white issue. Carbo as in carbon is Latin for Black and Candida is the Latin word for white when describing a Roman Senatorial Candidates toga.
Coal Black contrasted with Pristine White for an unspoilt natural environment is juxtaposed against an embossed image of a Roman Augur. Augury was the study of birds, their numbers, behaviour, calls and position in the sky to determine the best course for the Senate to ensure the pax (peace), fortuna (good fortune) and prospero (prosperity) of their state.
Sue Pickford, Artist Biography:
Mythologies, Icons and Archetypes
The broad aim of my art practice is to explore contemporary themes and ideas by drawing on source material from the distant or recent past.
Historical references, both the personal and universal reveal connections between ancient and modern motivations that emphasise the cyclical nature of historical narrative and the inevitable swing between opposite forces, left and right, doxa and paradox, which endlessly create new paradigms.
Additionally it functions as a medium of self-identification in a search for a sense of artistic and human identity on three levels – personal, ‘tribal’ and universal – a search for disrupted cultural roots where historical migration has been a feature of personal ancestry.
Inevitably influenced by the philosophical and socio-political issues of my era, in relationship to place, race and culture and with a specific interest in social justice and equity issues, particularly pertaining to women and multiculturalism, I seek comprehension of the fundamental beliefs and ideologies that led our society to this point.
By researching and developing images, often through appropriation of iconology and cultural schemas, I use myths, archetypes, stereotypes and icons in order to highlight the universally common origins of the human species; of ancestors who through their myths and legends sought to construct and make sense of the world and the unknown –to create order amidst the chaos. (from Sue Pickford’s website)
Valerie Volk has always been a closet writer, beginning her career as a seven year old with a collection of embarrassingly bad fairy stories. In the intervening decades as a student, teacher, lecturer, examiner, researcher, education program director, wife, mother of four, and grandmother of six, writing has been a secret indulgence.
She has now published eight books to critical acclaim, ranging from the deeply moving In Due Season, the nostalgic A Promise of Peaches to the ‘wickedly subversive and sinister’ Even Grimmer Tales and the ‘riveting read’ of her fourth book, the verse novel Passion Play. In the Pocket Poets series, she has published the nostalgic Flowers & Forebears, and her sixth book Bystanders, with its compelling stories based on minor Biblical characters was published by Wakefield Press in June, 2015. This was her first prose publication, but soon followed by another slim volume of poetry, Indochina Days, published in October 2015, in Ginninderra Press’s Picaro Poets series and her most recent book, the 2017 Of Llamas and Piranhas, a collection of poems written while travelling in South America. Valerie’s most recent book, a historic fiction novel, In Search of Anna, will be published by Wakefield Press in February, 2019
While she publishes mainly poetry, her award-winning short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and collections. She finds her inspiration in the fascinating question: What if …?(from Valerie Volk website)
Hilary Kleinig is a multidisciplinary musician based in Adelaide, Australia, who works as a performer, composer, producer and educator.She is passionate about creating new work, collaborating with new artists and inspiring new audiences.Hilary is founder, Artistic Director of and cellist with Zephyr Quartet, a bold and adventurous string quartet, with whom she has curated and produced projects, collaborating together with a range of artists and companies working in various artistic fields. With Zephyr she has also commissioned and performed new music by many composers working in various musical spheres and performed with a diverse range of leading musicians. Zephyr Quartet’s projects have led to performances at festivals including OzASIA, WOMADelaide, Soundstream: New Music Festival, Holland Dance Festival, Edinburgh International Arts Festival and the Perth International Arts Festival. In March 2016 ZQ premiered Exquisite Corpse, a musical version of the surrealist parlour game, and the sold-out premiere season of this was presented as part of the Adelaide Festival and co-produced by the Adelaide Festival Centre’s inSPACE program.
Read more…
(extract from Hillary Kleinig website)
Bimblebox Art Project 