Cuckoo uses the metaphor of the cuckoo and its apparently selfish tendencies to explore changing seasons, rebirth and the joyous fecundity of nature, indifferent to human anxieties. Cuckoos famously lay their eggs in the nests of other smaller birds, often killing that bird’s offspring to ensure their own survival. As a symbol of rapacious appetite and settler practices, the cuckoo is an apt mode through which to unpick the asymmetry perpetuated by the global rich upon fellow humans and their more-than-human kin.

Drawing on the early twentieth century research of Edgar Chance, who wrote ‘The Cuckoo’s Secret’ and directed the 1922 film of the same title, I have made a large-scale hand-made ‘hide’, like that used by Chance to capture the first-ever footage of Cuckoos laying their eggs in other birds’ nests. The hide provides a viewing device through which one can step back and objectively analyse animal behaviours. It makes a feature of the anonymity of the viewer and their separation from the scene they survey. 
This piece was included in 2023's Od Festival in Somerset. ​https://www.instagram.com/p/Ct6oZp1s_X7/?img_index=1