Home sweet home thematic label

Home sweet home thematic label audio description

Nests, nest boxes and the home environment are places of sanctuary and safety. It is a basic human right to have shelter, a place to call home.

Housing is not only a crisis for people, but also for wildlife. As cities grow and landscapes change for new developments, many birds lose their homes. This loss of habitat takes away places where they can shelter, raise their young and find food.

In Spotted Bowerbird Egg No. 2, Leila Jeffreys draws attention to how fragile bird life can be and how closely it is connected to healthy environments. She is known for caring deeply about birds and their habitats, spending time observing and respecting them. Her work encourages us to feel empathy for birds and to see them as sharing our landscapes, not just living on the edges of human life.

These same impacts can be seen in Richard Lewer’s Bird Song series, where birds are affected by human actions and changing environments. The birds in Lewer’s works reflect stress, displacement and vulnerability caused by habitat loss, pollution and urban growth. Together, Jeffreys’ and Lewer’s artworks show how birds respond to the loss of safe places to live, breed and survive.

By focusing on a bowerbird egg, Jeffreys highlights what is at risk when natural habitats are damaged or destroyed. The egg symbolises new life and survival, but also how easily this life can be lost. We consume without thought, unconscious of how much we waste and the damaged to our surroundings our choices generate. Both artists remind us that the way we build and expand our cities has real consequences for wildlife, and that we share a responsibility to care for the environments we all call home.

Scan the QR code and watch the Leila Jeffreys’ The wound is the place where the light enters video to hear of the personal grief the artist felt through the impact the fires that tore through the East Coast of Australia in the summer of 2019.