Blackbirding 1440 -1870
Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition
California College of the Arts, San Francisco
2005

unraveled velvet, velvet fuzz,
thread, hairnets, glue
dimensions variable

In the 1840’s, "blackbirding" was a term used to
describe a sporting practice in which white settlers
would go hunting to kill native Aborigines in the
Australian bush. By 1870, it was commonly
applied to the African slave trade. Kidnapped
Africans were referred to as blackbirds and the
ships that transported them to the Americas
were called blackbirders.