Survival Suicide

environmental ecosystems Ecology Australia australian fauna endangered species Invasive

Louise Morgan

Survival Suicide I & II

Watercolour // Graphite & Gold leaf on paper
455 x 557mm ea, 2014

These artworks were my contribution to a group exhibition The Intimate Whole at The Corner Cooperative in Sydney. (6 - 18 February 2014)
I took the opportunity of the group them to actualise some concepts and ideas that had taken residence in my mind for quite a while. This step back into a more illustrational or representational style for me is the product of my concerns for environmental pressures and a hope to communicate with the broader community about these issues.

For this group show I produced a small series of drawings that explore the unforgiving consequences of evolutionary defences in Australian native and invasive species. My focus lying particularly in the conflict that ensues the survival of these species through the use of statistics pertaining to breeding cycles and a growing understanding of the fragile nature of Australian ecosystems.

I won't go into detail about every work, but hopefully the following synopsis acts as a general pointer to what this new body of work is about.

detail: Survival Suicide II
Graphite and gold leaf on paper

2014

Survival Suicide was my original branching concept - particularly for the first diptych featured here which looks at the relationship between the endangered northern quoll and the introduced cane toad. The northern quoll, alongside the majority of other Australian carnivorous fauna populations have been impacted significantly by exploding cane toad populations - cane toads bearing a poison that native fauna can not tolerate. Consequently, native carnivorous populations have been in decline as a result of either confusing cane toads for their usual amphibious prey (native frogs) or native frog populations losing out due to habitat competition with the prolific cane toads.

At the same time, I hope to bring to light the fact that the cane toads are perhaps not at full fault - as they are only doing what they have always done - and that their prolific breeding cycles are a game of survival - yet ultimately, many die. They should not have been introduced in the first place, and are a constant reminder of the responsibilites humans have when playing with ecosystems and introducing new species. It's this duality of native vs invasive and the brutality of nature coupled with human intervention/ignorance that I'm exploring in these works.

Installation view: The Intimate Whole II - Group exhibition at The Corner, Sydney, 2014

Featuring (from left to right) Emma Kirby, Rachael McCallum, Louise Morgan

Installation view - The Intimate Whole: Chapter II - Group exhibition at The Corner, Sydney, 2014
Featuring (from left to right) Rachael McCallum, Emma Kirby, Thomas Quayle & Louise Morgan