Extinct describes and illustrates 39 Australian creatures extinct in the Anthropocene. It does not include the megafauna, those huge wombats and kangaroos that became extinct around 50,000 years ago. The foreword by Brook Garru Andrew sums up this marvellous book, “Extinct is a testament to how science and art can work together to inform and inspire. The artists have created visions of these special creatures and Ben Gray’s words provide descriptions of each animal. Science also provides the possibilities for a healthy future.”
Ecologist and historian Benjamin Gray gave 41 of Australia’s established artists whatever information is available about the 39 extinct animals and let each loose with their imaginations to create an image of a long gone creature. For example, there exist film clips and photographs of the Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) and two artists, Marina Strocchi and Henry Curchod, used these images to create very different paintings of our most famous extinct animal.
Jacob Boylan had a bit of the jawbone of the Nullarbor Dwarf Bettong, the only specimen ever found. He created a screen print of the bones over a sea of human faces.
David Frazer did a woodblock print of the Kangaroo Island Emu dressed in a tweed jacket and appropriately titled it ‘incognito king island emu’. Lottie Consalvo had the following 1909 description of the Tasman Starling: ‘Its soft, slaty-grey plumage is somewhat in variance with its bright orange-red eyes’ and so painted the bird as great swishes of white shapes that evoke fluttering feathers. Dianne Fogwell’s two linocuts of the Lord Howe Gerygone are technically outstanding. Her fine detail of the birds in pine trees set against hills in fog are absolutely exquisite.
Johanna Hildebrandt’s colour-nuanced acrylic painting of three Toolache Wallabies is set in South Australia’s heathlands.
These black-footed marsupials were hunted to extinction for sport and to clear ‘pests’ from agricultural land. Johanna was drawn to the Toolache because of its interesting dark paws and face markings. ‘Such a pretty animal – how sad to think that less than 100 years ago it was still grazing in the southern part of the continent. Because it is extinct, I set this wallaby family in a surreal atmosphere and landscape.’
Australia is home to an incredible diversity of native animals and so it is fitting that the artists are a diverse group and the materials they used are so varied. The mammals, marsupials, amphibians, a worm, birds and a snail are illustrated in oil, acrylics, felt-tipped pens, charcoal, linocuts, pencil, polaroid, woodblock, screen print and wax with oil stick. Diversity to the maximum!
Why did these animals become extinct? On Norfolk, Christmas, Kangaroo and Lord Howe islands it was mainly caused by rats jumping off ships and having a feast on the specialised creatures that had evolved there. On the mainland, the main culprits were foxes, feral cats, development and rising water levels in coastal areas. Despite there currently being 121 Australian animals considered critically endangered, the book is not all gloom and doom. Extinct celebrates these unique animals. The last chapter, A Story of Hope, lauds the survival of the Mountain Pygmy-Possum, demonstrating that even the rarest creature can still roam in wild Australia.
Each animal’s double-page spread provides very readable fascinating facts about the animal’s behaviour and biology.
The biographies of the artists are in an appendix. Extensive references of each animal are listed at the end. The cover is a wonderful illustration of the Eungella Gastric-brooding Frog (it delivers its babies through its mouth) by Simon Collins. The book designer is by Cath Pirret Design. Extinct features poetry by Mark Tredinnick.
The artworks are by Sue Anderson, Brook Garru Andrew, Andrew Baines, Elizabeth Banfield, Sally Bourke, Jacob Boylan, Nadine Christensen, Simon Collins, Lottie Consalvo, Henry Curchod, Sarah Faulkner, Dianne Fogwell, David Frazer, Martin George, Bruce Goold, Eliza Gosse, Simone Griffin, Johanna Hildebrandt, Miles Howard-Wilks, Nick Howson, Brendan Huntley, Ben Jones, Alex Latham, Rosemary Lee, Amanda Marburg, Chris Mason, Terry Matassoni, Rick Matear, Eden Menta, Reg Mombassa, Tom O’Hern, Bernard Ollis, Emma Phillips, Nick Pont, Geoffrey Ricardo, Sally Robinson, Anthony Romagnano, Gwen Scott, Marina Strocchi, Jenny Watson and Allie Webb.
The CSIRO is the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. It publishes an array of scientific works and also books for the general public. At the very reasonable price of $45 from some online booksellers and $60 from CSIRO directly, this wonderful art-science-coffee table book is a must for nature lovers, artists and scientists at any price. Highly recommended.
CSIRO Publishing
ISBN hardback: 9781486313716
Also available as a epdf and epub
Review by Carol Dance