installation at the Wentz gallery, Pacific Northwest College of Art
April 1995, sponsored by ORLO
created by Jennifer Martin Davis, Gregory Cosmo Haun and S. Sakellaris
This show concerns the extinction, preservation, and cultural view of a group of endangered or threatened birds in the Pacific Northwest. These birds spend their summers on breeding grounds in the Northwest and travel to Central and South America during their winter migrations. They depend largely on riparian habitats which are disappearing due to development and pollution, thus their numbers are dwindling.
The most concerted efforts of conservationists and of a concerned public to preserve these birds is offset by the limitless growth our society propounds. Urban growth expands to accommodate new industries, suburbs and burgeoning human populations. Those birds which cannot adapt to this human domain peter out. Others, such as crows, city pigeons, house sparrows, scrub jays and starlings are booming in numbers because they can survive in the urban domain. In the bird world, as well as in human society, unrestrained expansion is destroying diverse gene pools, habitats and cultures, and eliminating many fascinating, unique creatures. The landscape mutates into a monocultural blur.
Our show presents a scenario and examination of our role as preservers and destroyers of animal species and their ecological culture.
There are four parts to our exhibition. One part consists of a set of refrigeration devices. These are glass refrigerated cases (2 to 4, depending on the site) which house representations of these endangered birds, and a small amount of textual information about each bird.
These representations of our endangered birds will consist of life-size sculptures made from materials which these birds eat, including seed, berries, and suet. The suet requires refrigeration to keep it from melting.
The viewer will peer in the cases to discover the sculptures, and the familiar act of "looking for something to eat" will take on many new meanings in relation to our artificial management of animals for food and enjoyment, and the artificial preservation practices we have employed in an environment threatened by limitless human dominance.
In addition these bird sculptures will be "released" throughout the year, into urban and wild environs for birds to eat. We are interested in publicly commenting on these problems of monocultural species subsuming a more diverse and unique cross-section of birds. For example, we are filming an effigy of a red-necked grebe, which is an endangered bird, being eaten by a flock of house sparrows. Videos we have made of these encounters will play continuously on a television monitor amidst the cases..
A series of detailed graphite drawings incorporating collage (approximately 10 drawings) will hang on the walls, in accompaniment to the bird sculptures and film. In these works, the kind of information about birds which most of us don't know, especially relating to their behavior, will be incorporated in a visual format. The drawings are approximately 18"x 24" in size. The images exist in the pages of a trompe l'oeil book, open for the viewer. The effect is like an old compendium or encyclopedia of bird behavior which has never been published, or was published long ago and dissected for this exhibition. S. Sakellaris, who will be completing these pieces, has worked as an archaeological illustrator. The work reflects this kind of attention to detail, but the content will be the content of contemporary issues of the lives of birds and the lives of people.
The fourth part of this installation will be a series of approximately eleven "Bird Boxes." These metal boxes, measuring 4"x4"x2", contain analog/digital voice chips on which are recorded the songs of endangered and threatened songbirds of the Pacific Northwest. Each box is labeled with the name of the particular bird whose song it plays. The box is activated by the viewer pushing a button in the center of the box.
These songs are both common and exotic to our ears. For most of those unfamiliar with the bird kingdom, this will be a chance to identify singers of our aural landscape which are shushed as they die out. The irony that these songs are now sung by industrial boxes with computer chips for larynxes is evident, and perhaps would suggest sort of anthropomorphic Disney World devices gone awry. Also we hope that our work will stimulate questions about history, memory and commemoration through art, which is sanctioned as an enduring record of culture and landscape.
List of birds endangered or threatened in the Pacific Northwest:
Northern Goshawk, boreal owl, tricolored blackbird, grasshopper sparrow, black-throated sparrow, tule white-fronted goose, black-chinned hummingbird, burrowing owl, lesser scaup, ring-necked duck, upland sandpiper, marbled murrelet, aleutian Canada goose (wintering), cackling Canada goose (wintering), dusky Canada goose (wintering), bufflehead, Barrow's goldeneye, furruginous hawk, Swainson's hawk, great egret, veery, western sage grouse, western snowy plover, black tern, yellow-billed cuckoo, yellow rail, black swift, spruce grouse, bobolink, pileated woodpecker, gray catbird, snowy egret, white-tailed kite, streaked horned lark, merlin, common loon, American peregrin falcon, northern pygmy owl, greater sandhill crane, california condor, pinion jay, bald eagle, harlequin duck, western least bittern, loggerhead shrike, Franklin's gull, black rosy finch, Wallowa rosy finch, acorn woodpecker, Lewis'woodpecker, long-billed curlew, mountain quail, fork-tailed storm petrel, flammulated owl, American white pelican, brown pelican (wintering), white-headed woodpecker, black-backed woodpecker, three-toed woodpecker, pine grosbeak, white-faced ibis, horned grebe, red-necked grebe, blue-gray gnatcatcher, vesper sparrow, purple martin, bank swallow, black phoebe, northern waterthrush, broad-tailed hummingbird, Allen's hummingbird, American redstart, western bluebird, pigmy nuthatch, Williamson's sapsucker, black-chinned sparrow, Caspian tern Forster's tern, great gray owl, northern spotted owl. greater yellowlegs, solitary sandpiper, Colombian sharp-tailed grouse.
Greg Haun, Stephanie Sakellaris and Jennifer Davis are Portland artists who have worked together on previous projects. Stephanie Sakellaris is a native Portlander who is presently attending the Teachers College in the Fine Arts Program at Columbia University. She will return to Portland for the show, and maintains residential status in Oregon.
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