Unseeing elegy of the tetrachromats (2021) is an artwork that imagines the sensory lifeworld of an endemic Australian bird, the crimson rosella (Platycercus elegans). Exhibited online, it accompanied the ‘Birds and Language’ conference hosted by the University of Sydney in 2021. Construed across three discrete yet interlocutory parts, the artwork is encountered as recorded performance, video, and sound, each contributed by artists Jessica Laraine Williams, Roger Alsop and Alex Last. The artists collaborated with ecologist Mathew L. Berg in order to interrogate an anthropocentric trope in art: rather than focus on the human-centered spectator of art, Unseeing elegy speculates on birds as the primary audience, revealing the corollary tensions inherent in creating artwork for nonhuman 'tastes' and perceptions.
This excerpt is Jessica Laraine Williams' contribution to the artwork.
It can also be viewed here: https://youtu.be/Ehrw2iSS48U
This excerpt is Jessica Laraine Williams' contribution to the artwork.
It can also be viewed here: https://youtu.be/Ehrw2iSS48U