Hiding in Plain Sight (Witch Grass Nest)

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RESEARCH BACKGROUND The exhibition explores climate change, the commercial development of fragile ecosystems and how this impacts the natural world, especially animals. Weaver and other leading artists from Australia, China, India and the USA investigated the interconnection between the animate and inanimate. Weaver addressed her central research question, can we find a spirit in the animate, by examining the implications of understanding the natural world as a shared space rather than separate confines of the living to natural habitats and the dead to museums. The work responds to these questions with ambiguity reflecting an uncertainty about the future. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION The work is approximately a meter in diameter in the shape of an enormous teardrop of grass and cane and is suspended mid-air. It echoes the distinctive construction of the communal nest of the African Ploceidae or weaver bird and invokes the temporary structures created for viewing other birds, while hiding in plain sight. The sculpture transports the viewer to the realm of watching and listening to nature and encourages an exploration of how the inanimate can capture the spirit of the natural environment. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE Director of Tarrawarra Museum of Art Victoria Lynn commissioned Weaver as one of two Australian artists to create and exhibit work alongside four Internationally renowned artists. The exhibition was the first in the Tarra Warra International series and was widely and positively reviewed in publications such as The Guardian (UK) and The Age.