CATHERINE CLOVER  
  Artworks     Info  
 
       
 

 

   
   

Fivex Art Prize
Two digital billboards corner of Flinders and Elizabeth Streets, central Melbourne
14 December 2020 - 31 January 2021

 
       
   

Song Cycle (Winner - First Prize)

Yan-Guk’s scratchy raucous song is rendered for the horizontal billboard using the rhythm and metre of an early morning exchange, which includes two slightly varied groups of three notes, repeated. The complex song of the Common Starling includes a long dropping melodic note which seems ideal for the vertical billboard. The texts are site-specific: both birds are common to Melbourne including the city centre. Both are songbirds but Yan-Guk (Red Wattlebird) is native and the Common Starling is introduced (Melbourne 1857, Sydney 1877). The proximity of the songs and the billboards suggests a sonic meeting point between the two birds. With any luck, the general public would find it irresistible to sound out the bird calls when they pass by the billboards.

This work is part of an ongoing project that considers what the sonic meeting point of the native and introduced birds may have been and how it may continue to be unfolding in Melbourne today. Songbirds learn their songs/languages from their parents just as we do and a number of other species that we know of, such as whales, dolphins, bats, parrots. This means that their vocal sounds remain adaptable throughout their lives and they can easily learn new ones, just like us. The project considers the devastating impact of colonisation from a posthuman point of view and how colonisation processes that decimated Indigenous life in Australia through forced assimilation, dispossession and genocide affected all species.

The Woi wurrung word Yan-Guk (Red Wattlebird) is a translation kindly provided by Wurundjeri Elder Aunty Gail Smith.

 
    External link to Prize  
       
     
       
       
     
       
       
     
       
       
     
   

I spend time at the location of any public artwork I have installed. I am interested in how the artwork merges and blends with the site and whether it gets any obvious or less obvious reactions and responses, either human or bird. The crossroads of Flinders Street and Elizabeth Street is a richly sonic urban site and one of the busiest in central Melbourne. There is the continual arrival and departure of trains with loud train horns from the main metro interchange of Flinders Station, the clanging of heaving trams on routes 35, 70, 75, 19, 57, 59, buses 234, 236, 605, truck and van deliveries, some car access, cyclists and pedestrians walking, wandering and milling about. As a busy, crowded place it is usually full of tourists as much as locals and is a magnet for anyone struggling to survive on the margins, the numbers of whom have increased exponentially with the pandemic.

 
       
     
   

While Yan-Guk and Common Starling are common across Melbourne, both in the city and suburbs, I did not see either during the periods I watched these digital billboards. Numerous Silver Gulls and a circling flock of Common Pigeons were the most visible birds, cavorting around the crossroads of Flinders Street and Elizabeth Street, with the loud voices of Common Mynas the most audible. Sparrows flew about in small clusters, often landing on the billboard structure in groups. Rubbish bins are full of fast-food crumbs and left-overs from Boost Juice, Walker’s Doughnuts, Burgers and Fries,
7-11, Nando’s etc which provide rich pickings.

 
       
     
   

The ratio of the cycle between artworks (by the six finalists) and advertising varied at different times of day and on different days of the week. Sometimes an artwork appeared every six adverts, sometimes it was every 15 adverts. It seems likely that the pressure to have more advertising between the artworks was greater due to the pandemic and repeated lockdowns.

 
       
     
   

With Joshua Berger, Director of Fivex Art Prize and Lord Mayor of Melbourne Sally Capp. Photo Credit Eugene Hyland

 
       
     
    With co-winner Daniel Kotsimbos, Joshua Berger and Sally Capp. Photo Credit Eugene Hyland  
       
     
    And with finalists Phi Do, Magdalene Carmen, Deborah Kelly (Kent Morris could not attend) Photo Credit Eugene Hyland  
       
     
    Looking at the billboards. Photo Credit Eugene Hyland  
       
       
       
   
  Artworks     Info  
 
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
   

 

 
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
     
       
   

 

 
       
       
   

 

 
       
       
   
 
       
   

Corvus corvix, Corvus corvix, Corvus corvix, Corvus albicollis,