The majestic Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo, known as minungkana in the Palawa language, is a large, noisy and iconic bird. Often heard before it is seen, its movement from the mountains ahead of cold and rain is said to signal approaching wild weather. I have long been fascinated by these birds and welcomed the opportunity to create a sculpture of one for the ECHO Festival.
In response to the festival theme, Layers: Woven in Time, I wanted the work to tell a story through its materials. Although I often work with a wide range of mediums, this piece evolved through found and salvaged elements. I began by collecting driftwood from East Coast beaches, but when I discovered a pile of old, weathered fence palings, I knew they would form the perfect feathers. My process is intuitive — I begin with only a loose vision and allow the shapes, textures and histories of the materials to guide the outcome. Using reference photographs and measurements from a specimen at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart, I built a structural frame from steel and timber. The head was carved from a salvaged Macrocarpa pine log — an introduced species that is nonetheless favoured by the minungkana. The beak was shaped from driftwood, the eyes crafted from a discarded red wheelbarrow wheel, and the yellow tail feathers cut from an old plastic crate and oil drum. Once assembled, the sculpture was carefully burnt to create its distinctive black plumage.
These birds are full of energy and character, so I chose to depict the cockatoo in flight, as if launching from a tree — capturing a fleeting, animated moment in time.
Paul Whelan Earthworm Designs – Building life into your imaginations
