:.Catherine Clover.:.Posthuman Publics.:.:

The Ambassadors (2019)
Ferntree Gully Library, outer Melbourne.
As part of Immerse 2019 Art in Unexpected Places Public Art in the City of Knox
Immerse is co-ordinated by Kim de Kretser. Ferntree Gully Library site curated by Samantha Barrow
Opening Sat 31 August, Artist's Talk Sat 21 September. Installed until October 2020

A site specific installation about the vocal prowess of the Superb Lyrebirds that live locally in Sherbrooke Forest, outer Melbourne. In the myths of the Wurundjeri Tribe, the traditional owners of this part of what is now known as Melbourne, the Ancestors granted Superb Lyrebirds the power to speak to all the birds and are known, not as mimics or deceivers, but as ambassodors.

On the windows of the library the scores include -
Superb Lyrebird
Superb Lyrebird as Laughing Kookaburra
Superb Lyrebird as Eastern Whipbird
Superb Lyrebird as Southern Boobook
Superb Lyrebird as Red Wattlebird
Superb Lyrebird as Common Blackbird
Superb Lyrebird as Pied Currawong
Superb Lyrebird as Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoo

For more info see this doc

The content of this installation is extended in a chapter that will appear in Ventriloquism and Contemporary Art edited by
Jennie Hirsch, Maryland Institute College of Art, and Isabelle L Wallace, Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia 2020/2021