Get Off of My Cloud
SEAN CRAWFORD
Get Off of My Cloud
350 W x 970 H x 630 W mm
taxidermy Californian Quail, laser-cut text on steel, metal chair with a powder-coat render
$5,680 inc gst
The New Zealand quail (Koreke), a small ground bird, was the only native representative of the pheasant and quail family in Aotearoa. It was the first bird species known to have become extinct following European colonisation. Previously, it was common throughout the North and South Islands, with Māori making use of it as a food source. By the mid-1800s, it had become scarce in the North Island and decreased rapidly in Canterbury as the result of agricultural conversion of the grasslands, as well as hunting. Sadly, by 1875, It was presumed extinct.
This piece is an observation regarding a species demise, through the direct and indirect influence of the settlement of New Zealand. It depicts the Californian Quail atop a chair - as this became the replacement species when the Koreke disappeared as a natural resource. The words cut into the chair - ringing the indignant tone ‘Get off of my cloud’ - is a direct quote taken from the Rolling Stones 1965 hit ‘Get off of my Cloud’. This song - aptly recorded in Californian - is an ode to the heady heights of fame, being on ‘cloud nine’, and those who want to pull you down, or pull you ‘off of your cloud’.
The sculpture initially plays on that idea of the native quail, lamenting its demise, and lambasting its substitute from the pearly gates. However, it becomes more a critique of settler mentality and the Acclimatization Societies mantra of ‘Improving on Nature’. The domestic object (the white chair) floating as a cloud - perhaps even the land of the long white cloud - gives the Koreke little solace as the usurper (Californian Quail) sits high on the back rest.
When taken as a metaphor for mans dominion over nature, our ability to exploit a natural resource to its final demise is highlighted. Sir Walter Buller was once quoted saying that quail (Koreke) were ‘very common, and that daily bags of 40 or more birds were not unusual’. The sad irony being, that this often occurred, only to replace that commodity with a foreign species. Thus, it becomes that species that remains in our land - of the long white cloud.
