The fire and the bristlebird

"My work overlays time and place to express the need for human accountability and the painful complexity of animal and environmental ethics in Australia.

Since colonisation, we’ve lost an overwhelming amount of unique flora and fauna. This trend continues as whole species become collateral in the churning gears of perpetual economic growth. The Black Summer megafires affected over three billion animals and, despite being one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history, have already faded from the ether.

I can’t help but feel connected to the Eastern Bristlebird. This impossibly shy, seemingly unremarkable little brown bird has just a few geographically separate areas of habitat along the east coast left. They don’t fly but dart through the cover of their heathland homes wiggling their tail feathers and calling to each other once a year to find a mate.

Their low numbers were thought stable until the megafires extensively destroyed their habitat in Nadgee Nature Reserve. Emerging from the blackness isn’t a reassessment of the value systems and land management practices that brought us here, but the revelation of a reality where the shy brown birds that make up our complex ecosystems can be sacrificed to the ‘new norm'."

- Rebecca Selleck 2020

Rebecca Selleck is a Canberra-based artist with a focus on interactive sculpture and installation, blending animatronics, assemblage, casting and sound. She completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts at the ANU School of Art with First Class Honours, majoring in Sculpture and Art Theory, and also holds a Bachelor of Communications, majoring in Creative Writing and Literary Studies. She uses her practice to reciprocally investigate and challenge her own perceptions within a culture of conflicting truths. Her work overlays time and place to express the need for human accountability and the painful complexity of animal and environmental ethics in Australia.

She is the recipient of multiple awards, including the prestigious Peter and Lena Karmel Anniversary Prize for best graduating student at the ANU School of Art, and has exhibited across Australia and in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Venice, Italy. She was a finalist in the inaugural 2017 Ramsay Art Prize at the Art Gallery of South Australia and in 2018 the Arte Laguna Prize in Venice, Italy; the Macquarie Art Prize; the Ravenswood Art Prize (Highly Commended); and the Churchie Art Prize. Her work is currently held in public collections at the Museum of Australian Democracy, Parkes ACT, Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo NSW, Bendigo Art Gallery, VIC, and Shepparton Art Museum, VIC.

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