An exhibition containing over 250 hand carved and painted Australian Native birds by Queensland artist Ted Barraclough is currently on display at Chapter House Lane in the lead up to the ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2017 Festival.
Ted Barraclough’s practice found its beginnings in his childhood in rural Queensland during the pacific war years. He grew up on a farm and began to develop a lifelong relationship to birds and their conservation. Around the same time, he used an uncle’s Blacksmithing workshop to wood carve toys for the family.
Now 81, Barraclough has a staggeringly prolific practice that combines his skills as a citizen ornithologist and carver. His developed carving technique has allowed him to create beautiful representations of birds that are unique to his chosen art form. From a makeshift studio in his garage in coastal Queensland, he carves a huge array of Native Australian birds.
Co-curated by Bronwyn Johnson and Louise Klerks, the exhibition Birdman, features wrens, honeyeaters, magpies and Victorian species, many of them now endangered, taking over the laneway windows, offering the visitor the opportunity to critically reflect on the role of birdlife in the environment around us.
The extensive collection of Barraclough’s work is being presented as part of ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2017 – a biannual festival presented by CLIMARTE that features a range of exhibitions and events harnessing the creative power of the arts to inform, engage and inspire action on climate change.
Birdman
Chapter House Lane, entry via Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Exhibition continues to 29 April 2017
Free admission
For more information, visit: www.chapterhouselane.org.au for details.
Image: Ted Barraclough, Superb Fruit Dove, 2014 and Sacred Kingfisher, 2017 – courtesy Doggett Street Studio and artHIVES