It belongs to a wider cycle of small-scale works on paper. Without access to her studio, the artist adapted to working from home, using fast drying and low maintenance materials such as acrylic paint and paper.
Clunie depicts a large gold painted imaginary bird with outstretched wings on a mid-night-blue background. The aesthetic of gold paint used in sections of the artwork dates to techniques applied by byzantine craftsmen. Under the bird a human figure appears to kneel before it as if in prayer along with a giant golden egg, which symbolises fertility and growth. Sections of leaves and branches appear to grow from within the body of the bird and the red figure. The scene offers a sense of hope and optimism with its vibrant motifs shining against the dark background. Whereas the all-encompassing darkness conveys the wider societal fear experienced during the pandemic. Clunie describes how the panic and horror of the disease that was killing so many innocent people around the world, somehow made her reach deep down into a mythic symbolic layer of our shared consciousness, to a place of ancient resilience and vision of resurgence. She states: “The bird is phoenix-like, representing rebirth, its dynamic outstretched wings conjure a feeling of strength, and the golden egg acts a symbol of hope for the future”.
Image: Rosemary Clunie. Night of the God-bird, 2020, collage and acrylic on paper, H420 mm x W594 mm.
Courtesy and ©Rosemary Clunie and Renée Pfister Art & Gallery Consultancy, 2022.
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