'A Little Birdie Told me'
Barbara Heath
3 December 1999
Craft Queensland
Tonite we are here to play in two realms - the wondrous bower-birdish 'Takeaway' sale show featuring trinkets and treasures for the eye (and potentially for under the chrissy tree) and of course the equally wondrous (but a tad more minimal) ' A little birdie told me' show by Barbara Heath. I think the aptly named 'Takeaway' speaks for itself - it is my pleasure to speak about the Barbara experience.
Well no Australian family bookshelf is complete without the 'Which Bird is That' in handy reach to refer to at the merest flutter, warble or tweet.
What comes to mind to at the mention of birds? For me - its chooks in the garden at childhood, Jonathan Livingston Seagull at puberty, carved Emu eggs, New Farm Crows, hideous Brisbane pigeons, the vulture scene in 'Kundun', THAT scene with Tippy Hedron and peacocks roosting at dusk in Tasmania or calling at dawn in Thai temples.
Barbara Heath has, in her usual encyclopedic way, clustered together an exhibition for bird fanciers and jewel fanciers alike. This is not a bunch of disparate jewels but a carefully considered enterprise embracing the talents of a flock of people - Malcolm Enright (on installation and didactics), Michael Dowling (on lighting), Kirsty Simpson (also on installation), Juan Luis Gonzales and Caroline Pearson (in the studio) and of course the stylish femmes that are Craft Queensland - Shirley, Ivana, Amelia, Danielle and Tess.
Resting lightly on clouds, shielded safely in bird houses, these birds are showered in their own light. For Plato - bird houses symbolized the mind. Yet only the briefest glance is possible through the keyhole opening. Peering into the space we are frustrated from a full view of full flight. The covers and peep holes are stolen (by Mal) from the vents and masonry openings of mid 19th century Peking architecture (sourced from the life's work of a chap called Daniel Sheets Dye on Chinese architectural lattice). Only the patient can see - but the rewards on the eye are joyous. 15 Birds
make a perfect flock formation - 7 girls, 8 boys, 6 birdcages, 7 species of birds, 7 points I would like to make:
1. The Skylark Birds (to quote Coopers Encyclopaedia of Symbols) signify: 'transcendence - soul, spirit, divine manifestation, spirits of the air, spirits of the dead, ascent to heaven, ability to communicate with gods or to enter a higher state of consciousness, thought, imagination.' Well that's a good start.
2. The Snipe The Routledge Dictionary of Symbols notes something important for all of us to remember about Birds - '... some enjoy the company of men like the swallow - others prefer solitude and the desert like the turtle-dove.'
3. The Redwing Colours have a bearing on the symbolism of birds - for Bachelard, bluebirds are connected with aerial motion and with a pure association with ideas. Berger's divine article, The White Bird could have no other name.
Traced from an enlargement of an early English ornithological diagram - these brooches are carved from wax - bombéd into three dimensionality - cast in sterling silver or 18 ct gold and inlayed with gems. The colour of the jewels feature strongly in these pieces (which have created a home for some of the rare jewels gathered by Barbara - and carefully documented by Mal - at the Tucson Gem Fair earlier this year). For the eyes: white diamonds, green agate, rose rubies and yellow and blue sapphires. For the bellies: translucent labradorite, chrome taumaline, brown diamonds, a moonstone, tiny threads of teeny Chinese pearls, a watery-green beryl and hot pink teardrop spinels.
4. The Hawk 'Augury' is the observation of birds in deciphering the future - their presence varies in this process - sometimes it is the direction of their flight that is interpreted, sometimes it is the shape of their entrails after slaughter. Across countries, birds are often seen as 'the messengers'. (There is a lovely story about Max Ernst and birds - his sister was very ill, Max had a dream that she would die, but in the morning it was revealed that their pet bird was the one who had passed away while his sister lived.)
Holding their secrets in their Jewel-bellies, these bird brooches (says Barbara) may be a means to deciphering our way into the next millennium - messages are carried through movement.
Barbara has chosen a quote about St Michael (from the Cooper encyclopaedia):
'Birds often accompany the hero on her/his quest (or in slaying the dragon), giving her/him advice, 'a little bird told me' and she/he understands the language of birds'.
Hindus connect birds with intelligence and knowledge - there is a saying 'He who understands has wings'.
5. The Wryneck Barbara and Mal's bird fancying does not stop with mere imagery - 'Mary' - their Indian Ring Necked Parrot - now lives happily in her aviary outside their shared Brisbane studio.
And recently, at 5am, the intrepid duo joined the 'Interpretative Birding Group' at the Botanical Gardens for a bit of pre-dawn bird psychology. Barbara now subscribes to the Interpretative Birding Bulletin - where the titles of the articles alone makes for dammed interesting reading:
'The value of eavesdropping'
'Predator identification'
'Mate selection and nests'
'A Brave New World for Birding'
'Interpretative Bird Outing'
'Are Bowers Safe Havens?'
'Helping to Show-Off' - and my personal favourite -
'Sexual selection in Australian Grass-Finches: latent preferences and concealed sexual identities'.
6. The Twite During our first conversation about the show, while walking through a suburban forest, Barbara said 'Birds are one step from vegetation' (at that moment we were interrupted by a wild cackle of kookaburras who obviously thought we were talking absolute nonsense). The shudder of the spinels and briolettes are the moment of fissure between bird and host plant, the vibration of severance. It was important that Barbara's birds are resting on branches. In China, Pillars are symbols of trees, while Birds on Pillars symbolize the union of spirit and matter. In Islam, birds are the soul of the faithful living in the 'Tree of Life' .In Buddhist mythology - there is a lovely story of two birds in a tree, one light one dark, one eats the berries, one does not, one symbolizes the active being, the other the contemplative.
And finally -
7. The Pipet A strange thing - brooches - these are miniaturisations, encapsulations, finely handled allusions to a million symbols, to nothing but beauty, to quirky unfashionable pinned things - to awfully chaste heirlooms - to grandma's dressing table - to bluebirds on confirmation frocks - to clasps at the throats of spinsters - love tokens given generations (Perhaps just the items that Barbara might pull apart to re-make into commissioned bracelets or rings, continuing the thread with the past but re-forming it.) So, if you could bear to steal them away from their safe havens, to let them fly the coop - these birds would also be perfect additions to the contemporary lapel.
So I would like to thank Craft Queensland, Barbara's friends and colleagues and collaborators and especially the very fine jeweller herself.