museum-held birds become portraits of ecological loss at new zealand pavilion in venice

"Artist Fiona Pardington presents Taharaki Skyside, a body of large-scale photographic portraits for the Aotearoa New Zealand Pavilion at Venice Art Biennale 2026. Developed in collaboration with filmmaker and photographer Neil Pardington and curated by Felicity Milburn and Chloe Cull, the exhibition turns toward taxidermied birds held in museum collections across Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. Through carefully staged images of endangered and extinct species, Pardington examines the intertwined histories of ecological loss, colonial collecting, and cultural memory."

"The photographs isolate each bird against dark backgrounds, drawing attention to the textures of plumage, beaks, eyes, and posture. The works depict species endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand, including the extinct huia and laughing owl, alongside critically vulnerable birds that remain under threat today. Although the subjects are museum specimens, Pardington avoids presenting them as static archival objects. Soft lighting and close-up framing give the portraits a quiet intimacy, allowing the preserved birds to feel almost alive."

"The project builds on more than two decades of Fiona Pardington's engagement with museum collections and photographic still life. Her practice frequently revisits taoka and natural history specimens held within institutional archives, questioning the systems through which objects, bodies, and cultures have historically been classified and contained. In Taharaki Skyside, those concerns extend toward ornithology and environmental collapse, while remaining grounded in Māori understandings of manu as spiritual intermediaries and ancestral presences."

"In Māori cosmology, birds carry genealogical, ecological, and spiritual significance, acting as messengers between human and divine worlds. The exhibition title i"

Large-scale photographic portraits present taxidermied birds from museum collections across Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. Each bird is isolated against dark backgrounds to emphasize plumage, beaks, eyes, and posture. The works include endemic species such as the extinct huia and laughing owl, alongside critically vulnerable birds still threatened today. The portraits use soft lighting and close framing to create quiet intimacy, avoiding treatment of specimens as purely static archival objects. The project links ecological collapse to colonial collecting practices and cultural memory. It also grounds the work in Māori understandings of manu as spiritual intermediaries and ancestral presences, emphasizing birds as carriers of genealogical, ecological, and spiritual meaning.

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