Jessie Yvette Journoud-Ryan - The Way I Strut

Wednesday 15 November - Saturday 2 December 2023

Click here for artwork by Jessie Yvette Journoud-Ryan

Birds scream at the top of their lungs in horrified hellish rage every morning at daybreak to warn us all of the truth, but sadly we don’t speak bird. Kurt Cobain

A major perk of residing in the Dandenong Ranges is the daily treat of hearing and watching the business, dramas and socialisation of birds in my garden.

I imagine their politics, their courting, their serious business of territory, their nesting preoccupations and their preening obligations… Negotiating their daily affairs and to-dos with my unwelcome presence and the imposing structures I have built in their natural environment. They bustle and hustle at my windows, they poop on my outdoor floor mosaics. They raid my berries, they swoop, they taunt my indoor cat, they wake me up with their song and they occasionally fly into my studio and perch inquisitively on some Royal Doulton.

Currawongs, blackbirds, cockatoos, superb fairy wrens, pardalotes, eastern spinebills, king parrots, gang gangs to name but a few.

Their presence and these encounters remind me to be present, to share my space and to honour them in my art practice. So, here’s to their good looks, their strange ways, their goings-on, the beat of their wings and their strut.