Mixed media (acrylic flamingos, UV light, audio)
An homage piece to US artist Don Featherstone, I see his iconic pink plastic flamingo as the epitome of kitsch. Don created the flamingo that has populated thousands of suburban gardens since the 1950s and with which I was fascinated (and still am). My father even brought one back from a business trip and it resided in our playroom surviving on half-sucked sweets we gifted it for sustenance. At night these flamingos come to life in vivid luminosity as they bathe under UV light reflecting on the high shine surface of a pool. This work is accompanied by a soundtrack of hundreds of flamingo calls. Ramandu’s Table also is inspired by The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis, in which a flock of snow-white birds delivers a ‘sun berry’ every dawn to a retired celestial star named Ramandu. The image of a flock of birds tinted by the colours of dawn was seared into my imagination when I first read the book.
This work continues the themes I explore in Gathering of the Clans and Minnesota Gathering in which I experiment with UV reflective materials and light.
