Exhibitions
Events
On display
bird of unknown affinities, Manu antiquus by Dane Mitchell
Dane Mitchell bird of unknown affinities, Manu antiquus 2022 Brass, mild steel, plaster of Paris. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, anonymous gift 2023
Art Bite
Past event
Meet in the exhibition
Join volunteer guide Stephanie Beth as she discusses Dane Mitchell's bird of unknown affinities, Manu antiquus on display in Absence on the first floor.
Art Bites are 30-minute lunchtime presentations on a single work on display, presented by our staff, guides and guest speakers.
There's a new Art Bite to enjoy each Friday at 12 noon (except during public and school holidays)
Related reading: Free event
Collection
Dane Mitchell bird of unknown affinities, Manu antiquus
Dane Mitchell deals in the invisible and elusive; things lost, replaced and forgotten. Here, the label for an empty museum mount identifies the missing specimen as a species of extinct bird that lived in Te Waipounamu, the South Island, approximately 33 to 23 million years ago. Its existence was established in 1946 by a British zoologist from a fossilised fragment of wishbone he found in north Otago. Researchers have speculated that it was an early albatross or a prehistoric ‘false-toothed’ seabird, but very little is known for certain. Accordingly, its scientific name is conspicuously unspecific: Manu means ‘bird’ in te reo Māori, and antiquus is Latin for ‘old’ or ‘ancient’. Mitchell’s slight, spare mount emphasises this perilous hold on history, as humans teeter at the edge of an age of mass extinctions.
(Absence, May 2023)
