Talking To Birds… and Other Stories is an mixed-media video installation comprised of three videos featuring some of Violette Stehli’s earliest jewelry.
The videos feature jewelry pieces inspired by or cast from animal parts (lion claws, bird beaks and bear teeth) created to serve as prostheses augmenting the human body, to strengthen the wearers bond with nature. The series, filmed in stop-motion animation, is about finding poetic and new ways to communicate with nature.
The Perth Institute of Contemporary Art is one of Australia’s leading museums. Since 1992, the Hatched National Graduate Show has presented the work of over one thousand artists alongside that of their national peers in this unique showcase of emergent talent. The exhibition aims to showcase the work of the most talented students graduating from Australian art schools each year. Following its success at the exhibition, Talking To Birds… and Other Stories was subsequently exhibited at the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery until the end of 2011.
Part of a series of three short films Talking To Birds And Other Stories presented as part of a mixed media installation to be viewed in a gallery or museum. Each piece of jewelry featured in these videos has been handcrafted using a mold of the original object: a bear's tooth, lion claws and a bird beak. These pieces have been created to reinforce our link with nature, and to help us appropriate the strengths of the animal they come from. This piece was selected to be part of the Perth Institute Of Contemporary Art's Hatched exhibition, an annual exhibition that features the work of the most promising young artists graduating from art schools across Australia. This piece has also been exhibited at the Coff's Harbour Regional Gallery. Written, directed and edited by Violette Stehli.