EXTINCT: Legendary Birds
About this Project
This original artwork brings extinct species out of the museum and into the streets. I created EXTINCT: Legendary Birds as part of my master's degree in Science Communication in 2024. This mural is the result of months of literature-based research and consultations with community members.
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The animals are facing West towards the sunset, with the exception of the kokako. The moa, despite being extinct for centuries, is prominent in Aotearoa New Zealand iconography. The moa faces East because of its enduring presence in this Aotearoa New Zealand's collective understanding, but its skeletal neck and skull turns West, the face looking towards the South Island kokako also known as the grey ghost.
Moa are often centred as a defining extinction in Aotearoa New Zealand, but in this piece of work, moa are a single example among many. By grouping the moa as the first of a series of Aotearoa New Zealand extinctions I emphasize the connection between the earliest anthropogenic extinctions, with recent extinctions in the 1970s.
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These pairings are meant to challenge the association of the moa’s extinction with antiquity and invites the viewer to think critically about the continuance of extinction.
I surrounded the moa with a large number of other extinct species and included in a list on the street mural the Maori, English, and scientific names, as well as the approximate years they went extinct.
Watch the Painting Process!
Watch the original Funding Campaign Video