OOlithus

This is a photographic print of a re-imagined OOlithus*. The piece considers the trace migration of the extinct Aepyornis maximus, the Elephant Bird, from its native Madagascar to the Western coast of Australia. The fossilised eggs of the giant bird travelled the currents of the Indian Ocean to reach Australia's shores in the nineteenth century. 

In this fragile contemporary moment, extinction of all species looms large as time is quickened by our own ebb and flow. Will the Earth, one day travel the currents of the cosmos as a fossil of its former guise? 

The use of Kangaroo vellum was in conscious recognition of my location in Australia when forming these pieces and the curious, tragically absurd relationship Australians have with their native species. Both one of awe and demise. These ancient animals are threatened by the contemporary human inhabitants of the island, a mere 250 years after colonisation that disrupted the fragile ecosystem and relation of reciprocity with the land and animals engaged by the indigenous peoples for thousands of years.

*a fossilised or 'stone' egg