Deutscher and Hackett

This reflection on the manipulation of genetics appears 'most powerfully in a work such as White onagadori, which depicts the extraordinary bird bred from mutations of long tail Japanese breeds for the sole purpose of achieving a beautiful but hopelessly impractical long train of tail feathers. Technique and subject mirror each other as Zavros' drawing strips away contextual detail, for that is not what lovers of this ornamental bird wish to see, and plays instead with the positive and negative decorative qualities of white on black, the languidly curling lines reminiscent of the decadent Art Nouveau style. Led out only for display, the onagadori exists to give tangible worldly form to the Phoenix, that mythical creature of the imagination. In reality this flightless bird must be confined permanently in a cage to protect the trailing feathers, its chain and its glory.¹

1. Rigney, V., The Good Son - Michael Zavros, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland, 2009, p. 5