Collaborations With Birds

Watching birds evokes the same ineffable feelings in me as looking at great art or listening to great music. I am honored to join together with my avian friends in my current body of work, “Sweet: A Collaboration With Birds,” currently on view at the Leiber Collection Garden of Friends and other locations until November. For this project I have created porcelain cakes, plates, and teacups that hold seed and water, and installed them outside on bistro tables, where birds swoop in to feed, drink, socialize and argue, creating a kind of performance piece. Since birds are uninhibited even when people are around, I often leave a camera to film them for hours at a time, and the videos and individual frames become part of the project. This ongoing dialogue with birds is a joyful, exuberant exploration of process and documentation.

Saturday, September 9 at the Leiber Collection I will talk about why I find it so mystifying, and gratifying, to see birds dine on birdseed in cakes and sip water from teacups. I will show photos and video clips of the collaboration to illustrate my insights.

Click images below to see more images. Watch videos of bird behavior here.