Bower

Jane James

Over two years I researched and produced a series of artworks on the bower structures constructed by male Bowerbirds. These birds are related to the Birds of Paradise, and are distributed over many parts of Australia and Papua. This journey took me over much of the range of the various species in Australia and into West Papua’s Arfak Mountains, where David Attenborough filmed. 

I have had the assistance of a number of ornithologists and researchers in undertaking these works - including Clifford and Dawn Frith, Dr Richard Noske, and researchers from both Deakin and Exeter Universities. 

The bowers are from the point of view of the female, with the emphasis being on the use by the males of forced perspective and composition, more typically seen in human artworks. 

The collection of works is made up of paintings, sculptures and prints. They all represent aspects of my exploration of these bowers. The paintings are to scale, and incorporate items cast from synthetic polymer, of the type typical to the particular bowers.

Whilst faithfully representing the bowers to scale, these works also examine the crossover between the language of art as it is employed by artists, and its use by these fascinating birds.