PARK WATCH Article September 2024 |

Artist and scientist, Dr Mary-Jane Walker is creating paper sculptures of the birds found in the Geelong area that are listed as threatened 

The hyper-realistic paper taxidermy sculptures which comprise the Now You See Us project are made from recycled and other papers with steel skeletons where required. The project aims to elicit an emotional connection and response to the ecological crisis which is going on all around us. Its intention is to highlight the scale of risk happening at the local level, all over Australia, as we enter the global era of the Anthropocene, the age of humanity’s overwhelming influence on the planet.

The project began with the realisation by Dr Mary-Jane Walker, who has a PhD in genetics and is a practicing artist, of the scale of threat to birds in her local area of Geelong. The work will eventually see sculptures of all the birds in the City of Greater Geelong listed as threatened under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.

So far, the project has completed 21 threatened birds. Mary-Jane is currently working on the last two owls, the Masked Owl and the Powerful Owl. These last two, together with the already made Barking Owl, will hopefully form part of a project looking at owl conservation. This will be in conjunction with researchers at the University of Melbourne and other community groups next year.

Mary-Jane says, ‘I am probably biased but I do feel art can engage people even more strongly with the big environmental issues of our time, through the emotional connection it makes.’

The focus of the project is a positive one; it hopes to raise the profile of this issue and offer a call to action. It is about making people think about how they can support these birds through research and conservation efforts. It also highlights the activities that city councils and others could and are doing in the conservation of native bird habitats. Time is running out for many of these beautiful and unique birds, the opportunity to save them is now.

The birds have featured in an exhibition at the National Wool Museum, which has the Plains Wanderer on permanent exhibition as part of their ‘On the Land’ gallery, and another at Barwon Park, a National Trust property near Winchelsea. The Barwon Park exhibition is featured in a short film online.

Although the majority of the birds are not currently on show, they do spin off other projects. Mary-Jane has done a number of related-school residencies and the birds were the starting point for the Alphabet Bird Project and Nature, Our Backyard Event in last year’s Nature Festival in Geelong. This project also features in a film on The School of Lost Arts website and tells the story of the six seasons from a Wadawurrung perspective.