A Devonport artist gives nature's scavengers their moment to shine, as Sharu Delilkan explains.
Lucy Bucknall's fondness for animals is so great her next bronze sculpture for New Zealand Sculpture OnShore is based on one of nature's least popular creatures - vultures.
She's given the piece a tongue in
cheek name, A tea party??, in hopes of coaxing people into changing the negative way we tend to think of the birds.
"Some see vultures as ugly omens of death, circling the dying overhead, anticipating a meal. I think they are really misunderstood creatures," says Bucknall.
"The word 'vulture' conjures up all sorts of negative meanings for people and I hope, by me creating this piece, people will be able to look at them in a different light."
Although she's trying to show the positive worth of vultures she concedes the piece is "a bit of a doomsday, where the vultures represent the remnants of some traumatic event on humanity. They are a ragtag bunch, a sort of Mad Max futuristic band of survivors."
Bucknall's obsession with movies is also depicted in the artwork in the food the bronze birds are poised to eat. From a distance this food appears very different from the reality revealed as one draws closer.
"It's basically a reference to Jaws when Richard Dreyfuss inspects the first found remains, he lifts up a hand severed from just below the elbow."
The Devonport artist is also particularly interested in "the distinctive, recognisable features of vultures such as their hunched backs and alien-like necks, and that they only eat things that are already dead."
NZ Sculpture OnShore is a biennial exhbition that, this year, will feature more than a hundred works by local sculptors to raise funds for women's refuges around the country.
"Being a woman, it's good to be involved and to know that this event is responsible for such good work," says Bucknall. "It's amazing but true that we still need to fight for equality, even in 2010."
NZ Sculpture OnShore, Fort Takapuna Historic Reserve, 170 Vauxhall Rd, Devonport, Nov 4-14, 10am. Details, see: www.nzsculptureonshore.co.nz
