PINK SWANS

PINK SWANS
Single channel infrared video, silent
11 minutes 20 seconds

Researchers from the University of Melbourne studied native black swans (Cygnus atratus) in Albert Park, Victoria for two decades and discovered 25-30% of cobs (male swans) were in same sex partnerships and pens (female swans) regularly gave up their eggs for these cob partners to raise. The researchers documented that cygnets (young swans) raised by same sex couplings have higher survival rates.

Here on the Gold Coast, and elsewhere, our native black swans face physical barriers, they are attacked and murdered. Not because they are queer but because they simply exist. Despite these attacks they thrive in community.

PINK SWANS is documented using an IR converted camera using 550nm infrared photography to emulate the Kodak Aerochrome infrared film that was historically used for military surveillance and camouflage detection. This IR technology offers us insight into the otherwise unseen - allowing us to see nature through different wavelengths of light and through a different, queerer, lens.

PINK SWANS captures local queer ecologies while drawing parallels to our local queer histories on the Gold Coast, as well as the broader LGBTQIASB+ community, documenting and celebrating the swans beauty and diversity. Screening PINK SWANS is a queering of the landscape, allowing natures queerness to be represented within the built environment outside of the usual binary restrictions.

PINK SWANS reminds us that we as human animals are not separate from nature, but part of it.

PINK SWANS SPECS: 4K UHD 2160p 59.94fps (3840 × 2160)
*video here on my website has been compressed during upload

Below is the version of PINK SWANS without credits that can be played on loop while being projected