NIRIN at Home: Drawing - Extinction Studies
Inspired by Lucienne Rickard's 'Extinction Studies', research and draw your own endangered or extinct animal
By Biennale of Sydney
#NIRINatHome
What you will need
Paper
Pens, pencils and/or other drawing materials
A computer or smart phone to research endangered and extinct animals online
Note: if you can’t do your own research online, you can use your imagination.
Method
1. Research information about endangered and extinct animals. We recommend visiting the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
2. Choose an animal that interests you. Maybe the animal you choose is similar to your other favourite animals, maybe the animal is native to where you live.
3. Find an image of your chosen animal, and draw it.
4. You can add to your work by drawing other objects. What kind of environment does your animal live in? What food does it eat?
When Lucienne finishes her drawings, she erases them. This symbolises the loss of these animals from our world. Will you erase your animal drawing, or will you keep it so you can share your creative work and your knowledge of your animals with other people?
For the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Lucienne Rickard presents a new iteration of a year-long project where she undertakes a daily reckoning: drawing, then erasing a recently extinct species sourced from the authoritative list of extinct and threatened species used by scientists globally. Rickard uses the same paper that was daily drawn upon and erased, and which bears the traces, memories and indentations of this accumulative engagement with loss.
We’d love to see how you use these resources at home. Post your stories and photos with the hashtag #NIRINatHome.
