Ian Hamilton



          
The Observance of form


          
Ian first spoke to me about the Golden
          Bower Bird 30 years ago when he explained his idea related to
          how and why art is produced, in the process expanding on his
          central 'thesis:

          
(free) time allows the elaboration
          of basic urges and/or forms.


          
Twenty years later he became aware of the
          plight of the Spotted Bower Bird, a species once common across
          eastern South Australia and northern Victoria but whose range
          had shrunk to western NSW and Queensland.

          Ian's initial response to the extraordinary behaviour of the
          various species of bowerbirds found in the Queensland rain forests
          had been one of wonder, but this turned to shock when he saw
          an abandoned bower of the Spotted Bower Bird not far from Mildura.
          He soon realised that he was observing an extinction event in
          progress.

          


          The invitation to participate in the 2008 Palmer Biennial provided
          Ian with an opportunity to produce works loosely based on the
          aesthetics of male bowerbird structures while at the same time
          reflecting on declining natural habitat.

          


          I worked with Ian over a period of 45 weeks building three 'bowers'
          on Greg John's property (principally as the collector of sticks
          but also as critic and sounding board). While Ian was primarily
          concerned with the process of building his 'bowers' I kept thinking
          about his 'thesis concerning 'free time'. This, and his reworking
          of the basic forms into somewhat ambivalent structures with their
          own aesthetic seemed to be the main concern. It wasn't until
          Ian began making the papier-mâché birds heads that
          I realised he was also concerned with the concept of extinction.
          I began to understand that there were many layers to his work.
          I was also struck by how well the pieces fitted within the bleak
          environment in which he found himself working.

          Ian's three Palmer 'bowers' may have been inspired by the bowers
          of the Spotted Bowerbird but they are not replicas, they are
          responses to the conditions and aspect of each of the three very
          different sites he had chosen, including the nature and size
          of the dead sheoak sticks immediately at hand, and in the various
          loads of wood I carried to him, often from more than a kilometres
          away. Each bower structure was started quite differently and
          took a unique form that seemed to arise from the very moment.
          In time, as Ian worked and reworked the structures, I was privileged
          to see the creative process in action, as the, initially, very
          different bowers, came to be part of a more connected series,
          as a unity of form and style arose. 

          


          Throughout the process of building Ian and I talked and talked,
          sometimes agreeing, sometimes disagreeing about his core thesis
          concerning time and creativity. In the process one, or maybe
          both of us, grew in our understanding of the nature, purpose
          and necessity of art.

      
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