unfriendly skies: birds, buildings, and collisions
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Unfriendly Skies: Birds, Buildings, and CollisionsTRANSCRIPT
THE SILBER ART GALLERYSanford J. Ungar Athenaeum | Goucher College
Unfriendly Skies: Birds, Buildings, and Collisions
Rose Anderson
Sandy Anderson
Miranda Brandon
Bonnie Crawford Kotula
Stephanie Garmey
Aaron Heinsman
Brian Henry
Ursula Marcum
Lisa Moren
Timothy Nohe
Jenny O’Grady
Lynne Parks
Ben Piwowar
Nicole Shiflet
Nick Clifford Simko
Chris Siron
Van Wensil
Unfriendly Skies: Birds, Buildings, and Collisions
In the new exhibit, Unfriendly Skies: Birds,
Buildings, and Collisions, 17 artists investigate
bird deaths in Baltimore. Rose Anderson, Sandy Anderson, Miranda Brandon, Bonnie Crawford Kotula, Stephanie Garmey, Aaron Heinsman,
Brian Henry, Ursula Marcum, Lisa Moren,
Timothy Nohe, Jenny O’Grady, Lynne Parks,
Ben Piwowar, Nicole Shiflet, Nick Clifford Simko, Chris Siron, and Van Wensil mourn the
loss of these beautiful creatures and explore
elements such as light pollution and building
collisions, which kill as many as 1.3 billion birds
each year in North America.
The efforts of Lights Out Baltimore and related
conservation programs provide the inspiration
for their work. Lights Out Baltimore is a special
committee of the Baltimore Bird Club that
seeks to make Baltimore safe for migratory
birds. Volunteers monitor downtown streets
during migration seasons, rescuing injured
birds and collecting fatalities for research with
the hope to encourage bird-friendly building
design and use.
Our cultures and traditions are interwoven
with migratory birds. In mythology and religion,
birds are integral to creation stories and myths
as tricksters and oracles. They are associated
with the journey of the human soul after death,
and their mystery graces our literature, music,
dance, and visual art. They usher in the seasons
and are symbols of power and freedom that
adorn flags, stamps, and money. They appear
as logos, brand names, and product labels. In
times of war, birds carried messages that have
saved lives. The joy and beauty of bird color,
behavior, and song captivate us.
Birds are in trouble, however, and one of the
biggest killers is building design. Through
bird-friendly design and the simple and energy-
saving measure of turning lights out at night,
we can build in accordance with nature, to save
their lives and ours.
—Lynne Parks, guest curator
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Rose Anderson is a Baltimore artist who uses photography to illustrate the connection between humans and nature. Her piece “Yellowthroat Slain” shows one of the bird species most often killed in window collisions. Contrasting life and death, the artist invites the viewer to consider how human choices affect birds and wildlife.
Diptych: Yellowthroat Slain
2015
digital photography/ digital composition
two 18” x 24” chromogenic prints
in floating glass mounts
Rose Anderson
5
In “Extinction Ceremony,” Sandy Anderson imagines an after-world in which birds are extinct and can only be remembered through imitation and conjuring.
Extinction Ceremony
2015
oil on canvas
8” x 28”
Sandy Anderson
6
“Impact” had its origins with Miranda Brandon’s work as a volunteer with Audubon Minnesota’s Project BirdSafe, which monitors bird deaths due to window strikes. While collecting dead and injured birds along an urban route, she bore witness to the relatively modern phenomenon of avifauna attempting to navigate the reflective surfaces of built space, with its often-fatal consequences.
Miranda Brandon
Impact (Nashville Warbler)
2013
archival inkjet print
31” x 44”
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Flexible Instincts
2015
ABC bird tape, thread, found materials
dimensions variable (each object smaller than 4” x 6”)
Bonnie Crawford Kotula In “Flexible Instincts,” Bonnie Crawford Kotula stitches discarded objects and bits of string into scraps of American Bird Conservancy bird tape, an adhesive that, when applied to windows, prevents bird collisions. Mimicking a bird’s opportunism when building a nest, Crawford Kotula selects materials that are readily available—plastic packaging, webbing for produce, twigs, and wool.
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Stephanie Garmey has always been interested in the slowing of time and the meditative recollection of the regenerative and corroding events of nature. She has made paper cuts and drawings to speak about birds’ fragility and strength in life.
Stephanie Garmey Bird Curiosity Cabinet
2011
wood and silk screen printed glass cabinet, cut paper birds and nest, cut paper book
18” x 21” x 5”
9
Aaron Heinsman began volunteering with Lights Out Baltimore in 2014, inspired by the award-winning photographs of Lynne Parks and the leadership of Lindsay Jacks. Struck by the terrible beauty of the bird corpses he’d discover each morning—the rainbow bounty of a macabre scavenger hunt—Heinsman documented the victims of window strikes he encountered. He hopes visitors will be moved into awareness and action.
Common Yellowthroat
2014
C-print
5” x 7”
Aaron Heinsman
10
Brian Henry displays the fragility, beauty, and sadness of a small collection of dead birds. Using expired Polaroid film and a series of chemical baths, he creates a whirlpool of chaotic textures and light. Lights Out Baltimore raises awareness of the danger of city lights and reflective surfaces resulting in many bird deaths, and Henry symbolically incorporates these hazards in the photograph.
Dead Birds
2015
Polaroid Enlargement
12” x 12”
Brian Henry
11
going, going…
2014
kilnformed and cold worked glass
13.5” x 12.5” (assembled)
Ursula Marcum Baltimore artist Ursula Marcum explores the human act of collecting and has long been inspired by the ways in which people seek to collect birds, whether it be scientists or birdwatchers. These works are a way to recognize the tragedy of the loss of these creatures and that there is hope for a safer migratory path though the city.
12
Lisa Moren “Rembrandt in his Studio” is both a public art installation and an exhibition for the birds—specifically a red-tailed hawk named Rembrandt who typically lives in an animal rescue shelter in Baltimore City.
The exterior glass of the Silber Gallery has been overlaid with film that has been coated with a special chemical that allows humans to see UVB light waves, which typically are visible only to birds and insects. The film’s pattern communicates to birds not to get too close to the potentially dangerous glass windows.
Short Waves, Long Flights
2015
sight specific installation
dimensions variable
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Timothy Nohe Working in a contemporary arts building with a prominent glass “jewel box” architectural feature, Timothy Nohe has heard the dull thump of birds as they crash against huge panes of glass. This morbid cadence marks time in a very sad sort of music, and moved by this loss, the artist has created the work “tardus perditionem” (“slow destruction” in Latin).
tardus perditionem
2015
stereo sound
14
Jenny O’Grady This work explores the legacy of lost birdsong through book art forms. Each of the six books represents a commonly lost Baltimore bird. When the book is closed, the bird appears to be dead and devoid of color; when its pages are opened, the birds come alive through colorful paper popups and poetry that reveal secrets of the voices lost to the lights.
Six Birds: Unsung/Sung
2015
watercolor paper, cotton thread, watercolor, and pencil
dimensions variable
15
Lynne Parks Lynne Parks is an award-winning Baltimore photographer who loves and is fascinated by birds. Understanding the terrible toll current building design takes on these helpful and beautiful creatures, she volunteers with Lights Out Baltimore. Her way of contending with the sorrow of finding collision victims’ unnecessary deaths is through memorial photography, honoring individual losses.
Wood Thrush
2014
archival pigment print
12” x 20”
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Ben Piwowar Ben Piwowar’s work uses abstraction to reflect on fragility, adaptation, and regeneration. His objects often evoke displaced organisms or characters that are collectively negotiating a temporary-but-workable symbiosis with a new environment—not unlike bird populations contending with urban spaces. “Nesting Studies” is a body of sculptures and related works on paper.
Drawing for Nesting Studies (#2)
2015
mixed media on paper
dimensions variable
17
Nicole Shiflet For Nicole Shiflet, characteristics of the thaumatrope (the fluttering, handheld scale, and brief moment one has to steal a glimpse of the superimposing image) are all evocative of the small, complex creatures that are birds. The visuals of abstracted architecture on one side of the thaumatrope and of colors of birds on the opposite side represent two conflicting entities trying to coexist in today’s world.
Flutter
2015
ink and acrylic on paper with string
10” x 3”
18
Nick Clifford Simko
Nick Clifford Simko’s work considers the role of the male body in visual culture, citing historical imagery in juxtaposition with digital technologies. First introduced to Lights Out Baltimore through his partner, Aaron Heinsman, and inspired by his passion for the cause, Simko photographed Heinsman in a surreal composition amid several species of the collected birds.
Avian Dream
2014
silver gelatin print
18” x 24”
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Chris Siron Chris Siron has created artwork in various media and has melded his experience as a birder into this particular work, which has as its impetus bird collisions into buildings. This is inspired by Lights Out Baltimore’s efforts in educating the public, city leaders, architects, and urban planners. He hopes his piece evokes a sense of ascent and descent of beings into sympathetic resonance.
Nocturnal Voyage
2015
digital animation of mixed media
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Van Wensil Van Wensil is farm manager at Myrtle Woods Farm, a small organic farm in Elkridge, MD. The motto and mission of the farm is “grow in community with nature.” With the death of so many of our birds, a large link in our ecosystem chain is broken.
Our Shame Our Responsibility.
2015
mixed media
12” x 12”
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THE SILBER ART GALLERYSanford J. Ungar Athenaeum | Goucher College
DIRECTIONSBaltimore Beltway, I-695, to exit 27A. Make first left onto campus.
The exhibit is free and open to the public.
The Silber Gallery program is funded with the assistance of grants from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the state of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Baltimore County Commission on the Arts and Sciences.
www.goucher.edu/silber
March 31 – May 3, 2015ARTISTS’ RECEPTION
Friday, April 10, 6-9 p.m. (Artists’ talk at 7:30 p.m.)
GALLERY HOURS11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday – Sunday410-337-6477