MARION Manifold didn’t expect to find a letter from the United States Embassy in her Camperdown mailbox.
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The letter from Canberra mentioned the endangered bandicoots near Manifold’s holiday home in Port Campbell — specifically one she had carved into a linocut that had been on display in Adelaide.
The image of the southern brown bandicoot being hunted by a fox had been sliced into the work at her south-west studio and sent to the Waterhouse Natural Sciences Art Prize in South Australia where it was commended and sent on to another show in Canberra.
In addition to the National Art Gallery, 35 collections around Australia and France, the artist can add another interesting wall where her work is on show — the American embassy. “The ambassador saw the artwork and asked if I’d loan it to the embassy for his tenure in office,” Manifold said.
In addition to representing the world’s most powerful country, ambassador John Berry has another interest — conservation.
From 2005 to 2009 Mr Berry was director of America’s National Zoo.
Manifold donated the work, titled Endangered, to the embassy’s collection. “The ambassador is a great advocate for the natural environment,” she said
Only a handful of the southern brown bandicoots remain near Port Campbell with introduced species and land clearing pushing the species to the brink.
“It has great implications, the work will be shown to people across the world,” Manifold said.