Screech
Bronwynne Cornish (New Zealander, b.1945), Artist 2008 © All rights reserved See full details
Object Detail
Description
Coming To Terms With Impermanence. In 2008 New Zealand artist Bronwynne Cornish completed a six-week residency at the Sanskriti Foundation in New Delhi, and she too noticed the porous threshold between the sacred and mundane. She was also fascinated by the way human and animal forms – like the deity Ganesha who has the head of an elephant and the body of a human – frequently morph in Hindu mythology. While in Delhi she made two large ceramic sculptures, Howl and Screech, which are strange human-animal hybrids embodying the city’s chaotic energy and eerie nocturnal sounds – the dogs she heard howling at night, fireworks booming during the wedding season and the unearthly shriek of peacocks at dawn. Screech has the body of a dog painted an intense blue, a human torso and the head of a bird. Its sharp beak is open mid-cry and it holds a mysterious lump of gold that looks like a charm or amulet.
Excerpted from Art News New Zealand, Autumn 2014 Profile. (https://www.artnews.co.nz/autumn-2014-profile/)
Excerpted from Art News New Zealand, Autumn 2014 Profile. (https://www.artnews.co.nz/autumn-2014-profile/)
Title
Screech
Production date
2008
Media
red earthenware, slip, stains, paint, gold leaf
Measurements
625 × 225 × 360 mm
Credit line
Collection of The Dowse Art Museum, gifted by the artist 2015
Accession number
2015.5.1
