In Psittacines, Blake Lawrence explores both material and imagined relationships between drag performers and native birds through photography, large-scale cyanotype textiles, installation and performance, offering a platform for contemplation and lamentation of mass extinction in the Anthropocene.
Found leaves, twigs and feathers fold into scanned and layered compositions beside synthetic and human hair wigs and rhinestones. Bodies melt in and out of frames in acts of expanded self-portraiture. A tea brewed from organic matter toned crude cyanotype shrouds, and the gestures of lip-sync are offered as an act of mourning.
Blake Lawrence, Musk Lorikeet with Pink Flowering Gum (detail), 2021, archival pigment print on cotton rag framed in blackwood. Courtesy the artist and Grafton Regional Gallery, New South Wales
Grafton Regional Gallery
20 July to 15 September 2024
New South Wales
