The Newcastle Chest 2010

Louise Weaver
Melbourne-based artist Louise Weaver has responded to the Macquarie chest’s drawers and trays of taxidermied birds. Weaver’s drawer installation includes a native budgerigar, a zebra finch and a rainbow lorikeet, united by a wreath of wattle made from crocheted handblown-glass orbs. Weaver’s birds are ‘taxidermied from the outside’. Mummified in brightly coloured crotchet, they call into question our historical treatment of nature and our frenzied collecting and museumising.

^{Louise Weaver Arena 2010
hand-crocheted lambswool over taxidermied
zebra finch (Poephila guttata), budgerigar
(Melopsittacus undulatus), rainbow lorikeet
(Trichoglossus haematodus), hand-blown glass,
wooden beads, cotton embroidery thread, gold
leaf and mono filament, 8.2 x 47.0 x 36.0 cm
Photography by Mark Ashkanasy
courtesy the artist and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney}

^{The Newcastle Chest 2010
Commissioned by Newcastle Art Gallery
with the assistance of James and Judy Hart,
Robert and Lindy Henderson, Valerie Ryan,
Newcastle Art Gallery Society and
Newcastle Art Gallery Foundation
Newcastle Art Gallery collection}

^{Cabinetmaker Scott Mitchell
Australian red cedar (Toona ciliata),
NSW rosewood (Dysoxylum fraserianum),
River red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis),
tartan, glass and brass fittings
closed: 53.0 x 71.0 x 46.0 cm}

CURIOUS COLONY A twenty first century Wunderkammer is on display in the Gallery 10 July - 29 August 2010.