Tim Flach British, b. 1958
Major Mitchell's Cockatoo, 2021
Series: Birds
C-Type print
70 x 55 cm
27 1/2 x 21 5/8 in
27 1/2 x 21 5/8 in
Edition of 10 plus 2 artist's proofs
'This colorful cockatoo is due for a rebrand. Currently named after Thomas Mitchell, an imperial British surveyor who explored and mapped much of eastern Australia for the Crown, and who...
"This colorful cockatoo is due for a rebrand. Currently named after Thomas Mitchell, an imperial British surveyor who explored and mapped much of eastern Australia for the Crown, and who was formerly celebrated for opening the interior of the continent to settlers and championing poor landowners. Historians now remember him as a virulent white supremacist who orchestrated a massacre of Aboriginal people at Mount Dispersion in 1836, which has led many authorities to call for the common name of this bird to be changed."
Excerpt from "Birds", published by Abrams, 2021