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A Platonic Relationship (2013)

A4 Cartridge paper, speaker, SD video with audio 13:15 (looped); Panel: Gold, poplar, postcard (Giotto Di Bondone,

St Francis of Assisi preaching to the birds, 1298), dimensions: 400 x 460 mm; Bench: Steel, Walnut Burl, Plywood, Beeswax

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MADA: Now 2013 Graduand Exhibition.

Images courtesy of Christian Capurro


In 2013 Nicholas Smith embarked on a trip to find the 'Worlds Most Mysterious Bird'
1, the Night Parrot (Pezoporus Occidentalis) endemic to the spinifex grasslands of Central Australia. At the time of his trip the only physical evidence of the species existence were two carcasses found on roadsides in rural Queensland. He embarked on this trip knowing that what he was searching for would reject all of of his attempts to find it.

This trip came to inform the work. The things that he produces became the detritus, the peripheral observations, made whilst searching for something unachievable, the sighting of something that does not and cannot reveal itself. 


1. Stromberg, Joseph. "The World's 5 Most Mysterious Bird Species." Smithsonian Institute.
    http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-worlds-5-most-mysterious-bird-species-43278788/?no-ist

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