Ibis Portraits: Towards Ecologies of Belonging

 

Ibis Portraits: Towards Ecologies of Belonging, 2014.

Digital photographs, 29.3cm x 43.9cm.

These are portraits of the Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis molucca), taken at colonies along the Cook's River, Sydney. The Australian White Ibis is a native waterbird, whose traditional habitat is inland wetlands, such as the Macquarie Marshes. Due to persistent drought and environmental change in these habitats, these birds have established large colonies across Sydney over the last thirty years. The Australian White Ibis has become a city-dweller, a figure of urban nature. 'Urban nature' foregrounds the interpenetration of natural and cultural systems. Does the Australian White Ibis have a right to the city? How can humans and ibises better co-exist?

These ibis portraits are studies for the series The Ibis and Us: Ecologies of Belonging. That series, and its installation work, more purposefully interrogates human-ibis relations in a context of ecological and geographical change. This background series, Ibis Portraits: Towards Ecologies of Belonging, foregrounds ecologies of ibis-wetland relations in the city, with portraits of Australian White Ibises found at wetland sites along the Cook's River. The portraits aim to stir up speculation on human-ibis relations, by confronting human viewers with the non-human gaze of the ibis. Their eyes penetrate, asking questions about who belongs in the new ecologies of urban nature.