Kookaburra

There is something surreal about listening to the kookaburras cackling and hollering right outside your window as you're putting on your mascara. Who knew that wildlife in Australia had also decided to become city life?

I certainly didn't, and after two years I still can't stop the strains of Waltzing Matilda waltzing their way into my head, and the contradiction between the morning opera and, 20 minutes later, enjoying an espresso at the funky little café around the corner is frankly hilarious.

This little guy is our camping kookaburra, Barry. That persistently encroaching neighbour who's always cheerful but never leaves!

And that's how Barry became the first bit of wildlife to find his way into my still lifes.

Welcome to the inspiration for the Kookaburra. My first truly Australian-inspired still life that happened almost by accident.

And he opened my eyes to what defines a contemporary life in Australia....

European influences remain woven through daily Australian life—in our architecture, gardens, objects and traditions—while the landscape and wildlife are unmistakably it’s own. 

With the background and ledge photographed in Trastevere, Rome, and Barry’s campsite exploits captured near Blackbutt, Queensland, the Kookaburra explores contemporary Australian lives: how our lives are shaped by places near and far, and how we identify with them until they become strands of our daily existence. 

Each artwork begins with elements I have photographed and gathered over time — flowers, objects, architecture and details of the natural world. Photographed separately and brought together through composition, they allow me to explore the relationships that interest me: between nature and the built world, history and the present, different cultures and traditions, and the things we carry with us from one place to another.