BIRDS OF AMERICA II
In 1826, John James Audubon sailed to Liverpool from New York with his giant tin box portfolio of life-sized water-colours of American birds. He came to gain subscriptions for a series of elephantine engravings of his work; to publish and share his observations as an artist and ornithologist.
Nearly two hundred years later we learn that migratory birds are colliding with our shiny glass and steel buildings in New York and many other modern cities established on migratory pathways.
Man's impact on the rest of the natural world is powerfully evident. We have claimed the land, the rain forest, the rivers and the seas. Less obviously, we also reach into the sky and build barriers of concrete, artificial light, sound and radiation.
On his return to America, Audubon noted the changes taking place on the banks of rivers as settlers began the business of building a new world. In a refrigerator at the offices of NYC Audubon are collected last season's collision victims. They are stored in ziplock bags with details of time, date and location of discovery by volunteers and birders of New York City. Their bent and broken bodies present us with an eery reminder of the preserved birds, mounted and sculpted by Audubon, using his unique (and often criticised for being less than anatomically accurate) armature technique. Larger birds were drawn by him in poses which enabled them to fit onto the life-sized page format.
A privileged gaze at their frozen stillness and stiffness allows us to see their beautiful forms, colours and textures in great detail. No colour is lost from their feathers. They are evidence of our intervention in their world. These images were made in New York, together with audio 'scenes' of the city made from rooftops. They have travelled to Liverpool with us in our tiny tin boxes. We flew safely home without colliding with geese on the runway.
Jon Barraclough, Alexandra Wolkowicz. February 2009
This series of photographs is part of an ongoing, multidisciplinary, collaborative art project about birds and the skies above NYC, Birds' Ear View.
It investigates the relationship between man and nature and how we have become disconnected from the messages, symbolism and allegory of our natural world.
The project aims to gain a deeper understanding of what it is like to be a bird co-existing with us in
the city and what birds mean to us humans in the context of history, science and spirituality.
Visit the Birds' Ear View blog.
In 1826, John James Audubon sailed to Liverpool from New York with his giant tin box portfolio of life-sized water-colours of American birds. He came to gain subscriptions for a series of elephantine engravings of his work; to publish and share his observations as an artist and ornithologist.
Nearly two hundred years later we learn that migratory birds are colliding with our shiny glass and steel buildings in New York and many other modern cities established on migratory pathways.
Man's impact on the rest of the natural world is powerfully evident. We have claimed the land, the rain forest, the rivers and the seas. Less obviously, we also reach into the sky and build barriers of concrete, artificial light, sound and radiation.
On his return to America, Audubon noted the changes taking place on the banks of rivers as settlers began the business of building a new world. In a refrigerator at the offices of NYC Audubon are collected last season's collision victims. They are stored in ziplock bags with details of time, date and location of discovery by volunteers and birders of New York City. Their bent and broken bodies present us with an eery reminder of the preserved birds, mounted and sculpted by Audubon, using his unique (and often criticised for being less than anatomically accurate) armature technique. Larger birds were drawn by him in poses which enabled them to fit onto the life-sized page format.
A privileged gaze at their frozen stillness and stiffness allows us to see their beautiful forms, colours and textures in great detail. No colour is lost from their feathers. They are evidence of our intervention in their world. These images were made in New York, together with audio 'scenes' of the city made from rooftops. They have travelled to Liverpool with us in our tiny tin boxes. We flew safely home without colliding with geese on the runway.
Jon Barraclough, Alexandra Wolkowicz. February 2009
This series of photographs is part of an ongoing, multidisciplinary, collaborative art project about birds and the skies above NYC, Birds' Ear View.
It investigates the relationship between man and nature and how we have become disconnected from the messages, symbolism and allegory of our natural world.
The project aims to gain a deeper understanding of what it is like to be a bird co-existing with us in
the city and what birds mean to us humans in the context of history, science and spirituality.
Visit the Birds' Ear View blog.
