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feather rock island with cast Shapecrete base and miniature birds
First Arrivals at Macquarie Island
mixed
22" x 8" x 11"
2017

This composition was inspired by the shoreline of Macquarie Island, where about four million royal penguins cover the island's 20-mile beach during their annual nesting season. Almost 100 years after commercial harvesting for the blubber oil trade nearly decimated it between 1810 and 1918, the population is now thriving.

Macquarie Island lies in the southwest Pacific Ocean, 900 miles south of Australia and about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. Also home to a robust population of 100,000 seals, Macquarie Island was made a Unesco World Heritage site in 1997 to protect them from hunting to near-extinction in the early 20th century.

Tiny handmade penguin figures perch at the edge of the shoreline, which was shaped from a reclaimed Corian remnant. The tray was cast of dyed and reinforced concrete.