Extinction Studies

Lucienne Rickard

Extinction Studies was a sixteen-month durational performance in which Tasmanian artist Lucienne Rickard underwent a daily reckoning: drawing, then erasing, a recently extinct species.  Beginning each day during museum opening hours, Lucienne drew and erased on the same paper, eventually worn thin by the marks and indents of loss.  

Each extinct species was sourced from the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, the authoritative list of extinct and threatened species used by scientists globally. 

Extinction Studies merged art and science, a ‘study’ being both a technical art term – for a drawing or sketch done in preparation – and more generally understood as the practice of devoting time and attention to understanding a topic, which, in this case, is the process of species extinction and concerns for the future of biodiversity in the natural world.

Commissioned by Detached Cultural Organisation

Presented by TMAG

Follow Lucienne’s progress on Instagram here.

Dates: 6 September 2019 - 24 January 2021

Location: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) Link Building