Would I Lie To You Baby?

‘In childhood play we learn how to pretend, how to put ourselves in the minds of others, how to imagine what others are thinking and how to attribute false beliefs to them. Without this ability we would be unable to deceive and detect deception in the actions of others’.The exhibition ‘Would I lie to you Baby’ explores themes of deception and is inspired by the courtship displays of the Australian male Bowerbird. The most notable characteristic of bowerbirds is their extraordinary complex courtship and mating behaviour, males build bowers to attract mates. In and around the bower the male places a variety of brightly coloured objects he has collected. These objects may include hundreds of shells, leaves, flowers, feathers, stones, berries and even discarded plastic items, coins, nails, rifle shells or pieces of glass. The male spends hours arranging this collection. In four large drawings ‘Would I lie to you Baby?’ I have drawn impossible, imaginary bowers next to the seducing male and seduced female bowerbirds.  On an opposite wall is a collection of intimate drawings titled ‘Four Minutes’ (the time it takes for bowers to mate if their courtship display is successful!).  The process of collecting and arranging this series of gestural drawings echoes the actions of the male bowerbird. ‘Serenade’ is a nest made from materials I gathered in my garden. A small speaker from which the mating call of a male bowerbird can be heard is concealed in the nest.  ‘Eavesdropping (Satellite Male)’ is another recording of a male bowerbird placed in the receiver of an old telephone on the ground floor of the house. Satellite males are birds which exploit the efforts of another male’s courtship displays. The satellite male waits in the wings of the bowerbird’s territory until an interested female comes to investigate at which time he tries to mate the female himself.