Skull Springs (Levitating Galah), 2008
synthetic polymer on skeleton
3.5 x 10 x 4 cm
... Also exploring duality is a work by Tom Mùller. A partially mummified galah, carefully brought south to Perth from its resting place of skull Springs in the Pilbara, has been embalmed in lolly-pink paint. The skinny bones, bent with death, are weighted with the heavy application of acrylic toxicity. Removed from its original organic location, it has been positioned on an egg-shaped plinth low to the floor, Mùller re-placing the bird again upon 'ground', but here as an object. The intimacy of mortality, a witnessing of the way in which the bird's body has curled up as it has desicated, is combined with garish pink-hued modernity, viewed here in the artificial light of the gallery. The result is a salient homage to the bird's life and a mediation upon the collision between the natural and the manmade
Nyanda Smith
The Yellow Vest Syndrome: recent West Australian art. In Artlink, vol 29 no 2, pp 84-85.