A series of totemic sculptures placed in situ at 13th Beach, Barwon Heads. These sculptures were made to respond to Gustave Flaubert’s text below, ‘Flaubert in Egypt’ 1850.

“The enormous ruins look like a troop of ghosts. Graffiti and bird shit, these are the only two things on the ruins of Egypt that indicate life. Not one blade of grass on even the most eroded stones. They crumble to powder, like a mummy, and that is all. The graffiti left by travelers and the droppings of the birds of prey are the only two ornaments of decay. You often see a great tall obelisk with a long white stain all the way down it like a curtain, wider at the top and narrowing towards the base. It’s the vultures; they’ve been coming there for centuries to shit. The effect is very striking, and curiously symbolic. Nature said to the monuments of Egypt: you want nothing to do with me? Not even lichen will grow upon you? All right then, damn it, I shall shit all over you”.

Gustave Flaubert.