CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Rebecca Hastings
The Withering I
2022, oil on poly cotton, 50cm x 50cm
ARTIST STATEMENT
The Withering: In memory of bogongs.
Once they would darken the sun.
A fluttering mass of pestilential proportions.
They were so ordinary, and honestly, quite irritating.
So we killed them off.
With pollution and pesticides, and thoughtlessness. Yes, mainly thoughtlessness.
Anyway, there’s nothing more to be done.
They have been given a number.
Filed away in the catalogue of collateral damage (it’s a thing now, so they say).
What’ll go next do you think?
Will we grow used to these commonplace losses?
Averting our eyes from the withering.
Small bodies ground into the dust.
The Withering: In memory of bogongs.
Once they would darken the sun.
A fluttering mass of pestilential proportions.
They were so ordinary, and honestly, quite irritating.
So we killed them off.
With pollution and pesticides, and thoughtlessness. Yes, mainly thoughtlessness.
Anyway, there’s nothing more to be done.
They have been given a number.
Filed away in the catalogue of collateral damage (it’s a thing now, so they say).
What’ll go next do you think?
Will we grow used to these commonplace losses?
Averting our eyes from the withering.
Small bodies ground into the dust.