Extinction roll call
Sixty-one species of New Zealand birds have become extinct since humans settled here. The biodiversity loss in New Zealand also includes one species of bat, and one fish, the Grayling. After completing her Bachelor's degree a few years ago, Michelle Wilkinson felt her contemporary jewellery practice was drifting and needed a focus. Her Masters in Fine Art, supervised by Andrew Last and Bridie Lonie, enabled her to return to her science background, in marine biology.
Michelle researched these extinct species and made a series of brooches, one brooch representing each extinction. Before exhibiting them, she sent each brooch to the locality where each species had once lived, and collected photographs of them in situ. This enabled the people involved to connect with the bird and with the place. The photographs were compiled with information about each species into a book which accompanied Michelle's final exhibition. The Graylings were subsequently included in the 2019 Art and Water: Mountains to the Sea exhibition at the H D Skinner Annex, Otago Museum.
Michelle is continuing to explore extinction and biodiversity loss in her practice. She has turned her attention to New Zealand plants and frogs. Her work is telling a story, a sad story, but one that deserves to be told.