A prestigious London art exhibition on bird conservation and extinction has taken aim at illegal hunting in Malta with a large installation highlighting the killing of protected birds on the island.
The things I witnessed really messed with my head
The Malta exhibit – entitled ‘Crime Scene: Malta’, by Seth Groonped, Art Yvel and Graeme Host – consists of the outline of a bird in crime scene tape, fringed with photos of protected birds that have been shot or maimed this year in Malta, and filled with empty gun cartridges.
It forms part of ‘Ghosts of Gone Birds’ – an ambitious multimedia exhibition aiming to raise awareness on the need for bird conservation and celebrate the spirit of birds already lost to extinction.
The Malta exhibit is appearing alongside works by more than 120 leading artists, sculptors, musicians, writers and poets, including pop artist Sir Peter Blake, caricaturist Ralph Steadman and novelist Margaret Atwood.
Most artists have chosen a different extinct species and produced a new piece of art celebrating its former life on earth.
Running from last Wednesday until November 23 at the Rochelle School in Shoreditch, it has generated significant interest and coverage in the British media, including The Guardian, the UK Independent and BBC.
The inclusion of a Malta exhibit was the idea of curator and film-maker Ceri Levy, best known for his documentary film Bananaz about the ‘virtual’ band Gorillaz.
Mr Levy joined Birdlife Malta’s Raptor Camp last September, an experience he describes as “probably the most messed-up days of my life”.
“The things I witnessed really messed with my head,” he told The Sunday Times by phone from London.
“We become so de-sensitised to death because of images on TV, but when I saw an eagle blasted out of the sky by a barrage shots, I found the whole experience incredibly moving in the most painful, terrible way.”
Mr Levy had decided to join the Raptor Camp to shoot footage for a documentary he was making entitled The Bird Effect, which he describes as “a study of how birds inform and affect people”.
He chose Malta because he had heard it had a “dreadful reputation” for illegal hunting. “When I got there I found the situation was much worse than I had imagined. I could not believe what I was seeing and I wanted to share it with others to highlight the problem,” he said.
Mr Levy said that during his time with the Raptor Camp he witnessed a lesser spotted eagle and a short-toed eagle being shot down, and he was also present when three rare storks landed in Mġarr and received overnight police protection.
“It seemed like half the village came out to marvel at the birds, and the other half were just waiting for us to leave so they could try to kill them,” according to Mr Levy.
While acknowledging that protected birds are also killed illegally in other EU countries, including his own, Mr Levy claimed the situation in Malta was “far, far worse”.
“The amount of hunters roaming around was incredible – I have never been anywhere like it. I didn’t see any Maltese people enjoying the beautiful countryside when I was there – it was just hunters with guns and Birdlife volunteers. That’s an incredibly sad state of affairs.”
Mr Levy accepts he will be accused by some of being an unwelcome foreigner interfering in a Maltese cultural tradition. His response is that someone needs to challenge the hunters who seem to think they have a divine right to kill magnificent birds which arrive from northern Europe.
“I cannot understand how the killing of a majestic bird of prey can be considered by anyone as a tradition worth defending. Traditions can change – throughout history we have moved on from primitive and barbaric ‘traditions’”.
Although ‘Ghosts of Gone Birds’ is a personal initiative by Mr Levy, it will also raise money and awareness for Birdlife International’s Preventing Extinctions programme.