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Exhibition

Paika

Patricia Ingram

About the exhibition

‘Paika’ (Bay-ga), meaning, to rise up, in flight, is Patricia Ingram’s debut solo exhibition, which reflects her fascination with birds. From Tiny Wee-Bills and wrens that move quickly, to ospreys with powerful talons and sharp eyesight for hunting. To the bright green wild budgerigars in the outback, searching for grass seeds and water as they fly together, forming swirling patterns in the sky.  

A Koori woman of Wemba Wemba, Yorta Yorta, Wergaia nations, Patricia draws on the legacy of the bird totems of her great grandparents, the black cockatoo and the pelican. Birds often fly away when approached, with a burst of energy as they ascend. Similarly, it’s interesting to consider how rising above our concerns can change our viewpoints on our worries, much like art does for Patricia. 

Her artwork reflects her identity, and she hopes to encourage contemplation about these wonderful creatures and the need to protect them and their habitats, as we share their environment. 

5th June 2025 – 11th July 2025

Catalogue essay

Paika (to fly or rise up in flight) 

Patricia Ingrams’ debut solo exhibition at Nexus Arts is Paika. In her grandfather’s language (Wemba Wemba), means ‘to fly’ or ‘rise up’. Pat makes the motion of a flock of birds rising as one. The meaning is all in the movement, the physical gesture; I smile, imagining the birds flying up and off into the distance. The image sits with me – Paika.  

Pat has created layers of paika in this exhibition. In the sculptural installation of suspended birds, silhouettes of birdlike shapes, a flock paused in flight. In the motion-sensor video work projected on a gallery wall. The birds rise up in the projection almost like a sheet being spread over a bed but instead of falling with gravity, in a fluid ascent they climb across the skyscape and far over the horizon. What a beautiful thing to recreate, that feeling, that movement, that energy.  

A Koori woman of Wemba Wemba, Yorta Yorta, Wergaia nations from northwest and western Victoria, Pat lives in regional South Australia. On beautiful Narungga Country “about an hour and a half outside the city”, in her home studio sanctuary, she lets her small bird obsession run wild, making birds of all shapes and sizes from recycled materials.  

“I’ve questioned myself, asking why I started making these birds. It’s a part of who I am.” She speaks of childhood memories of her mother’s affinity with black swans. She explains to me, “Totems, that’s what we call them, but you could say guardian, carers, keepers, custodians.” Her great-grandfather (Wemba Wemba) has the black cockatoo as his totem, and her great-grandmother (Wergaia) are the guardians of the pelican. These sacred birds hold cultural significance, providing protection, guidance, and comfort.   

I share with the artist that since we’d started talking that I’d encountered some incredible birds, counting eight(!) pelicans along the Karrawirra Parri (River Torrens) one morning, spotting a spectacular barn owl nesting in the Adelaide Railway Station, noticing unique birdsongs, and witnessing birds in flight as if dancing together in the sky – Paika. I’m more attuned now to the birds around me, previously unnoticed.  

Since 2021, Pat has been making bird sculptures using marine and land debris and recycled materials of varying scale from life-sized emus for Tarnanthi festival, to her small birds. She shows me a lovely male blue wren. I ask if I can hold him. “Oh yes! I love people touching my work!” I am struck by how lifelike he is; similar in size, weight and feel to the real thing. Yet made from the very materials threatening his life and habitat, the loveliness of this wren in the present, tussles with its fishery past.  

We talk about scale, although small birds are Pat’s particular favourite, she has made larger than life birds too, including a mother and baby magpie, owl, and crows. The artist excitedly showed me photos of the crows eating oranges up near her home. Pat said that the clever crows had hollowed out all the oranges that had fallen off the trees and they’d left the empty orange rind spheres on the ground and completely tricked her husband and her when they’d hoped to collect some oranges. Pat said her last name: “Ingram actually means Raven or old crow.” We laugh thinking about those tricky orange-eating crows.  

The frames of her birds are copper wire sourced from old electrical cables and chicken wire. Their undergarments are ghost net, the outer layers, are made from ghost rope, both materials discarded by fishing and washed up from the ocean [Ghost Nets Initiative1].  

Like all art, craft, and nature obsessives we get distracted talking about the process of making and the materiality of the fibres. Pat shows me the ghost rope. Explaining, “As you pull it apart you get all these different textures.” Pat’s process could be likened to felting but with a coarser medium than wool. Almost like dreadlocked hair, this tangled texture forms the ‘feathers’, colour and detail of the birds. Other recycled, everyday materials such as PVC pipes for the beaks and fabric offcuts are repurposed bringing life to the birds.  

Pat spends a great deal of time researching, taking notes, drawing sketches, and making miniature versions of her birds – getting to know each bird intimately before attempting the final work. Each bird takes on its own personality and character, embodying the love and connection that artist has for these creatures.  

Written by Polly Dance (she/her) 

1 https://australianmarineparks.gov.au/management/partnerships/ghost-nets-initiative/

Polly is a curator, arts writer and artist based in Adelaide on the unceded land of the Kaurna people. Her practice is concerned with history, truth-telling, materiality, site-responsiveness, and accessibility. She works as the Curator of Children’s Artspace at Adelaide Festival Centre and volunteer Board member of Post Office Projects.  

Read full essay +

Meet the artists & curators

Pat Ingram is a Koori woman and her families language groups are Wemba Wemba , Yorta Yorta and Wergaia. Born and raised in Victoria, she has lived and worked in South Australia for over 20 years. A textile and fibre artist, she loves working with fibre, threads, and fibres. In the last few years, she has been making birds from recycled materials. 

Pat’s maternal Great Grandparents both had Bird totems, the black cockatoo, and the pelican. Her mother had an affinity with Black Swans, and she has always been fascinated by small birds. It is a large part of who she is. 

In 2021 she took part in a project as part of the Tarnanthi festival in which two Emus were created. She then began making birds sculptures from Marine and land debris. In 2022 she made many birds, so she calls it “The year of the Birds.”  

Her bird sculptures are made with materials that are deemed as waste that could be harmful to birds and their habitats. These include old fishing nets, fibres from old ropes that come from fishing boats, wire from old electrical cables, chicken wire, and offcuts of PVC pipes, as well as other recycled materials.

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