Trunks and Branches

Trunks and Branches continues Kylie Stillman’s bird poster series commenced in 2007. These framed works consist of 200 sheets of commercial printing paper (the standard bulk package), hand-cut in contour to reveal the impressions of avian forms, freeze-framed in various positions of life-like movement.

Well known for her carved book and timber sculptures, Stillman likens the concepts behind her making to intaglio printmaking processes, in which the forms that are etched into a metal plate hold the ink from which a printed image is pulled. As she carves into the individual sheets, hollowed recesses and shadows are revealed to provide the tonality and form that allude to a vanished body.

Challenging the usual notion of a free-floating framed work on paper, Trunks and Branches draws a quiet parallel between source imagery (the birdwatcher or ornithological artist) and source material (the organic matter from which paper and print products are derived).