2019

While the number of birds arranged in this vintage food container may connote good fortune – eight being the luckiest number in Chinese numerology – nothing could be further from the truth for the yellow-breasted bunting (Emberiza aureola), a migratory Eurasian songbird considered by many to be sacred, and currently facing extinction due to illegal netting in China, where it is prized and eaten for its aphrodisiacal qualities.

According to reports, bunting numbers have dropped 90% since 1980. Despite its hunting being outlawed in China since 1997, poaching for the black market by way of the cruel practice of netting thrives. Within a decade, the bird's status has escalated from 'least concern' to 'endangered', with forecasts of its inevitable demise within 20 years.

With Song Dynasty (clouds), NOT places these unsung souls low to the ground, each fixed in hand-etched lead crystal glass the colour of drifting clouds, floating free. We are invited to contemplate not only the bunting's fate, but that of all creatures seeking sanctuary, often far from their birthplace, in a world without borders. We are asked us to grasp the gravity of their plight and to hear the resonance of their song.

Courtesy of Kronenberg Mais Wright