Swallow

Artist: Nellien Brewer
Artwork: Swallow (2019)

One day I found a little dead sparrow. Being able to study this exquisite little creature from up close, persuaded me that I simply had to try and immortalise it somehow. I kept finding little bird corpses. Like the sparrow, they were simply too beautiful to simply discard. This started a series of ‘dead bird works’ in different media. As I continued working in this theme, the birds became, for me, symbols of all the beautiful and precious things which have been lost in our country as a result of corruption, crime and poor leadership.
This little swallow had fallen out of its nest at Tugela Mouth on the KZN North Coast.