2014 I am a Heron

There were two of Paul Dibble’s odd anthropomorphic bird-human creatures created, the first a sort of hybrid Tui and young boy with a theatre mask held in front of his face and a violin tucked behind his back.

In this newer study “I am a Heron”, a softer creature looms large, again with an instrument (a simple recorder) and here with a mask that has a slight Pacific quality within the features.

They are theatrical works, birds looking at the world through, false, human eyes, a drama playing out New Zealand’s fascination of birds as king of our native fauna. Perhaps it is their ability to fly that we often attribute birds with the characters of myths and legends or assigning to them supernatural powers. The being here stands, human legs rooting it to ground, with a slight limber statue and a quizzical expression.