Okarito Bachelor
It’s a lonely life for the young Ōkārito brown kiwi (rowi). He’s one of just 450 birds surviving in a tiny reserve on the West Coast of New Zealand.
The odds are stacked against him. Establishing a territory and getting the girl will be tough.
The rarest of them all, rowi are under serious threat. The question is – can they recover or will it be another case of a species vanishing forever right before our eyes?
Having worked in kiwi conservation for many years O’Keefe has a special affection for New Zealand’s famous bird. Choosing to avoiding clichéd icons, he represents them honestly as the tough, bellicose and powerful birds they are.
Finely crafted in recovered steel the life-size Ōkārito Bachelor is anatomically accurate.
A mantle of perforated sheet reveals the unique bone structure which underlies the kiwi’s strength and distinctive form – demonstrating their reptile ancestry and drawing attention to the precarious and perhaps ephemeral place these birds hold in the world.
Dimensions: 42x36x21cm
Medium: locally found Mid-carbon steels
