birdbrain, written text from a dvd projection
ARTIST STATEMENT
My current project birdbrain looks at our relationship with urban crows and seagulls and explores our mixed relationship with these common noisy and highly intelligent birds through voice and language (animal/human), including the spoken and written word (human). While we admire these birds’ obvious abilities in terms of survival, intelligence and ingenuity we also feel threatened by these very attributes that we share with them.
The project consists of audiovisual installation work including field recordings, bird mimicry, spoken and written texts (see image) as well as an artist’s book posing as a kind of mock field guide. Four performers and ten writers have contributed to the project.
THE ARTIST
I was born and brought up in London, UK, and studied at Wimbledon School of Art/North East London Polytechnic (now the University of East London) in Fine Art (Painting). After several years practice based in Angel Studios, EC1, I pursued a residency with Gertrude Street Artists Spaces in Melbourne, Australia and have been based in AU since the mid 90s. My current practice concentrates on the mediums of sound, digital imaging and installation. Interests in found objects, including found sound (field recordings) in particular, have led to a focus on contemporary landscape and ideas surrounding our changing relationship with nature, and in particular, other animals. The everyday – the quotidian, the common – informs this exploration. I am currently enrolled as a PhD (Fine Art) candidate at RMIT, Melbourne and I lecture and tutor at Swinburne University, Melbourne (MA Writing).
Recent projects and installations include birdbrain Soundfjord London UK and Emerson Galerie, Berlin, Germany, June and July 2011; Electronic Music Studies Network sforzando! conference and exhibition, New York US June 2011; Patricide 03 The Uncanny a print project edited by Neil Coombs, Wales, UK May 2011; Exquisite Corpse Soundfjord London UK April 2011; Calling the Birds II Trocadero Art Space Melbourne AU Oct 2010; Pigeon Post Mailbox 141 Melbourne AU June 2010; billing and cooing Billboard@Trocadero Melbourne AU May 2010; Sounds of my Neighbourhood MusikTriennale Koln Germany May 2010; Alternating Current: Sound Art Now Dragonfly Festival Sweden April 2010; coroocoo Anna Leonowens Gallery NSCAD University Halifax NS Canada Feb 2010; Pestival Radio broadcast on Resonance FM, London UK 2009; Minding Animals conference and exhibition The Lock Up Newcastle NSW AU 2009.
birdbrain, written text from a dvd projection