The Art & Craft of Nests

For centuries, the strength, fragility and resilience of birds has captured our collective imagination. They play a central symbolic role in our mythology, religion and folklore and have inspired our desire to fly - from science to poetry, art and music. Yet could birds have inspired the origins of our art and textile crafts?

Birds inhabit the globe and their history of textile use and technique mirrors the diversity of the cultures with which they coincide and intersect. They weave, felt, stitch and sculpt their nests using only beak and breast, yet from splitting, stripping and shaping, to coiling and random weave, these techniques are all echoed in human crafting tradition.

The Art & Craft of Nests explores the tenacity, determination, skill and ingenuity of birds to craft and curate. Artist Zora Verona emulates a birds methodology in collecting nesting materials by foraging locally for fauna, flora and found objects, re-envisioning nests that are held in natural history collections around the world. This exhibition of sustainable contemporary art works explores the complexity of nest forms honouring birds as artist and architect.

From scientific discoveries to theories proposing the origins of art and craft traditions, the unique stories revealed with each nest, the bird that created it, and the techniques used, are an invitation to awaken an understanding that every bird species is worthy of our wonder, awe and most importantly our protection.