SCULPTURAL OBJECTS

Cormorant is a static variation of the mast works, closer to a totem or marker than to a kinetic structure. The vertical column is made of wood and carries the remains of fish. Steel fish skeletons protrude from the surface, while painted skeletons continue the pattern across the body of the column. Above it sits the cormorant figure, made from cement and steel.

The work came from the conflict around cormorants and fishing. In the 1980s and 1990s, there was public anger about the damage these birds were said to cause to fish stocks. Many were shot or poisoned. Years later, the accusation turned in the other direction, towards the damage done by human fishing itself.

Like White Tower, the work depends on stillness. It does not move with wind or change its axis. Its force comes from vertical presence and from the unease of what it carries. It stands as a totem to the hundreds of birds killed in that period, and to the unstable logic by which nature is first blamed, then mourned, then blamed again.