Description
Photomontage screen print, acrylic on Fabriano Rosaspina printmaking paper 285gsm, 50 x 70cm FRAMED
Aoraki Mt Cook is in Te Wãhipounamu, a world heritage area on the west coast of NZ’s South Island. The alpine mountains and high-country sheep farms have been regularly showered with broad-spectrum pesticides for 70 years, over which time native birdlife has gone from profuse to endangered.
The background detail is from an intaglio etching of Aoraki Mt Cook 1888. The helicopter is attached to a large bucket of cereal baits, dispensing pesticide 1080 – an A1 hazardous substance, over the remote alpine region. New Zealand and Australia are unique in that they are the only country’s in the world that allow aerial baiting of wildlife across their mainlands – initially this was to protect livestock, but more recently aerial baiting has been redeployed as a “conservation” tool. There is so much support for the use of chemical pesticides that it is difficult to publish anything about the dangers of this technology.
The photo of the sheep was taken in the High Country near Glenorchy NZ during a covid lockdown in 2021.
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