Birds tweet to one another in Bird Song
Tully Arnot, Australia b.1984 / Bird Song 2024 / Ceramic, plastic, wood, metal, electronic equipment and air / Nine pieces: 30×10×5cm (each) / © Tully Arnot / View full image
Although it sounds like birds have made their way inside the art gallery, on closer inspection it becomes apparent that the birds tweeting to one another — perched on eucalyptus branches protruding from the space’s architecture — are coming from ceramic water whistles. For 'The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art', this is Bird Song 2024 by Tully Arnot (illustrated).
Tully Arnot, Australia b.1984 / Bird Song 2024 / Ceramic, plastic, wood, metal, electronic equipment and air / Nine pieces: 30×10×5cm (each) / © Tully Arnot / View full image
It’s unusual to hear sounds of the natural world in a gallery, which controls humidity, temperature, dust and insects to keep works safe from environmental changes and the effects of time. The birdsongs are in fact lines of code translated into sound by electronics and air pumps. The work presents an uncanny combination of mass-produced objects in an artificial setting resembling the natural world.
The artificial ornithological sounds in Bird Song make a dystopian allusion. The work forewarns of an age of mass extinction when we can only access wildlife in the museum context. Across Australia, populations of threatened and near-threatened bird species have declined by an average of 60 per cent over the past 40 years, with some of the largest declines in the state of Queensland. While such statistics are a sobering reminder of the environmental devastation humans are causing, Arnot hopes that the dispiriting notion of needing to artificially replicate nature might conjure greater support for conservation efforts.
Watch | Tully Arnot introduces Bird Song
How many can you find across our neighbouring buildings — the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art? You'll hear Bird Song before you see one... can you find all nine cleverly placed high above, you have to listen and stop, maybe you'll discover all of them or maybe just a few. Searching is half the fun, finding the next one is a new adventure.
Tully Arnot, Australia b.1984 / Bird Song 2024 / Ceramic, plastic, wood, metal, electronic equipment and air / Nine pieces: 30×10×5cm (each) / © Tully Arnot / View full image
Tully Arnot, Australia b.1984 / Bird Song 2024 / Ceramic, plastic, wood, metal, electronic equipment and air / Nine pieces: 30×10×5cm (each) / © Tully Arnot / View full image
Tully Arnot, Australia b.1984 / Bird Song 2024 / Ceramic, plastic, wood, metal, electronic equipment and air / Nine pieces: 30×10×5cm (each) / © Tully Arnot / View full image
Edited extract from the publication The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, 2024
Art that empowers change
Asia Pacific Triennial
Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art
30 November 2024 – 27 April 2025
Free entry