Spires (2021)
02:29 min
A chorus of the dead speaks to the birds moving above them through Rookwood Necropolis. From the grave, the dead contemplate life, death, body, and breath as avian life goes on around them. Birds embody an intense aliveness and presence, and a sense of the unfettered spirit. Like a spire reaches from the earth to touch the heavens, a linguistic thread of 'spires' runs through this work, connecting body and spirit through the animating breath.
About the Artist
Jacqui Malins is a multidisciplinary artist and poet who lives on Ngunawal Country, in Canberra. Her practice incorporates poetry and spoken word, performance, sculpture, video, drawing and photography. Jacqui originally trained in ceramics, but her modes of practice have multiplied since she discovered poetry in 2014. Her first poetry collection, 'F-Words', was published by Recent Work Press in 2021. Jacqui is concerned with how identity is formed, grows, changes, and persists over time, and how our interior experiences interact with our social and physical environment. Her longstanding interests in science and nature are emerging concerns in her art.