Mural (2020)

Artists: Mary Kayser and Dan Maginnity - Byrd 2020

Aranda District Playing Fields Amenities Block, Banaga Place, Aranda, ACT

Commissioned by A.C.T Government, Sport & Recreation, Canberra.

The project included community consultations with the local school, design and painting 160sqm of mural.  Over a 150 local people, including sporting clubs using the oval were consulted; further activities were also conducted with the local school.

Local artists Mary Kayser & Dan Maginnity - Byrd showcased the area’s wildlife, native plants, sports users and even local residents!

Natures recovery (2017)

Photo media

Valentines River, near Valentines Hut in Kosciusko National Park NSW, showing the recovering landscape after the 2002 bush fires

Please Sit (2016)
Earth Moments (video, 2016)

H 66.5 × W 165 × D 86 cm

Buffalo Hide, Red Gum, Stainless Steel

Inspired by the belief that we need ‘grounded’ connection with our natural environment to be in harmony with this precious planet Earth.

I created Please Sit to invite people to take a few moments to contemplate what Earth means to them. Visual media shows a collection of special places within the Canberra region, Kosciusko Mountains and waterways to the New South Wales coast in Australia. I call these Earth Moments. The work shares my experience and my inspiration.

I was taken to a special place amongst the Rams Head Range in Kosciuszko National Park above Thredbo, New South Wales. Resting on a patch of snowgrass by a small stream, I became totally transfixed and immersed in the incredible and subtle beauty evoking all my senses. I felt at peace, with an overwhelming connection. While sitting, everything appeared still as if staring at an enormous photograph. Gently, I became aware of interactions, revealed by floating clouds above extensive granite boulders, rippling water, waves of sunlight, grasses swaying and Alpine Daisies occasionally quivering as breezes passed. I was held by this ‘Earth Moment’. I felt a grounded connection as my body, mind, imagination and soul appeared to mesh with the larger living entity, charging my life force. I was inspired to seek other ‘Earth Moments’.

Knowing and appreciating our place as one component of this Earth, perhaps custodians not destroyers, requires mindfulness and quiet contemplation. Please take time to sit, feel the materials and consider.

— Extract by Mary Kayser from the Earth exhibition catalogue

Exhibited: Earth, Belconnen Arts Centre 19 August – 11 September 2016 curated by Benita Tunks and opened by TV celebrity Costa Georgiadis, host of Gardening Australia.

Exhibited: The Shine Dome, East Space Gallery, for Design Canberra, Craft ACT, Canberra, 2017 curated by Julia Greenstreet

Exhibited: The Playlist, ANCA Dickson ACT, 2017 curated by Karena Keys.

Buffalo TZM (2015)

H 213 × W 120 × D 110cm

Buffalo Hide, steel, stainless steel, glass

The suspended hide TZM represents millions of feral animals in Australia. Maintaining biodiversity to protect our future is crucial for Australia and our shared planet.

Buffalo TZM, an innocent perpetrator of environmental damage, is represented in precarious balance and inextricably linked to the trio of previous economic, social and environmental decisions. Support for the natural environment hangs on a hinge. Human ideas, inventions and decisions – their context and perceived outcome become the legacy for future generations. My protest is about collective environmental responsibility. Who will advocate for biodiversity and the natural assets we depend on?

— Extract by Mary Kayser from Protest exhibition catalogue

Exhibited: Protest, M16 Art Space, ACT, 26 March – 12 April 2015. Curated by Benita Tunks. Opened by Bob Brown, former leader of the Greens.

Embedded Memories (2013/2014)

H 2010 × W 1350 × D 85 cm

Stainless steel, mild steel, granite, red gum, buffalo hide and glass

Exhibited: SACRED, M16 Art Space, ACT, 14 November – 1 December 2013, curated by Benita Tunks.

Exhibited: SACRED, Blue Mountains Gallery, Blue Mountains, NSW, 10 September – 16 October 2016, curated by Benita Tunks & Sabrina Roesner

Portals 1, 2 & 3 (2013/2014)

H 43 × W 43 × D 3.5 cm

Stainless steel, granite, copper, mild steel, red gum and buffalo hide

Exhibited: SACRED, M16 Art Space, ACT, 14 November – 1 December 2013, curated by Benita Tunks.

My mother’s memories of our family in Hungary and her stories and knowledge are sacred to me. This series of work is inspired by this concept and my need to protect, interpret and pass on this knowledge. Embedded Narratives and the Portal series symbolically bridge my family’s history to my family’s future in Australia.

A familiar object through a number of generations in my family, the easel symbolises connection to my past and future. The easel becomes a shrine, an altar, reflective of the process of creating and expressing. Linked to this, the Portals provide a gateway for similar contemplation. In this series, materials are carefully shaped and married to poetically express my concept of what is sacred to me.

Each material has a story to tell and has a rich narrative. The materials I have used and explored become reflections on various generations and spaces in time. The granite slab, a solid foundation embedded with nature’s remarkable geometric configurations represents ancient ancestry. Highlighted sections of the granite reveal connections; a metaphor for our distant past, perhaps a map to our origins. Rusted and perforated mild steel is symbolic of my parent’s difficulties when they fled from Hungary during the Second World War. Stainless steel is contemporary; the material I often use in my current work. The tough and textured buffalo hide, gives an aerial impression of valleys and hills, which reflects our Australian landscape. The red gum cuts across generations and tells a story of our environment and how we can be supported and shaped by it.

A vision portal looks to our future. This marriage of materials in Embedded Narratives and the Portal series evokes my feelings of the sacredness of memories, stories and knowledge that must be passed on.

— Extract from Sacred exhibition catalogue.

Exhibited: SACRED, M16 Art Space, ACT, 14 November – 1 December 2013, curated by Benita Tunks.

Exhibited: SACRED, Blue Mountains Gallery, Blue Mountains, NSW, 10 September – 16 October 2016, curated by Benita Tunks & Sabrina Roesner

Remember the Picnic? (installation 2013)

Painted plaster cast apples , recycled stainless steel and aluminum, picnic matts. Sculpture by the Lake, Tuggeranong arts Centre.

The work invited participants to sit on the picnic mats and remember the good times outside, with family and friends.

Exhibited:  Remember the Picnic?, Sculpture by the Lake, group exhibition, Tuggeranong arts Centre, Canberra ACT, 30 November - 1 December 2013, curated by Narelle Phillips.