Endangered – 2010

A series of porcelain assemblages reveal the precarious existence of threatened Australian birds and plants. Endangered references elements from Australia’s natural environment and manipulates them in a manner that conveys tension between the colourful and vibrant life force of the natural world and the bleached sterility of intervention and extinction. The ghost-like branches and perches that were previously a nurturing environment for bird and plant life are transformed into sterile habitats. Incongruous surgical protrusions sprout from petrified branches. The surfaces of the white bone-like perches carry a narrative about the bird life that once inhabited these surrounds. 
 
Swift Parrot was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
 
“This work focuses on the implications of climate change and its effects on the native habitat and fauna. Its white-glazed branch form evokes the naturalistic Meissen ceramics of the 18th century, while the carefully-observed and depicted Swift parrot links Julie Bartholomew’s work to the more recent period of Australian nature ceramics of the 1930s. The broken, bleached and gaunt branch is a poignant and fragile resting place for the vivid bird, the entire composition heightening a sense of unease”.
 
Dr Robert Bell
Former Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, The National Gallery of Australia