Simon Starling, ‘Inverted Retrograde Theme, USA (House for a Song bird)’ (2002)
This installation references a housing project in Puerto Rico which was designed by Austrian architect Simon Schmiderer (1911-2001) in the 1960s. Schmiderer developed a series of houses made of building blocks without doors or windows to further integrate the outside and inside spaces, but the rise of crime in the 1970s forced locals to add elaborate barriers onto Schmiderer’s designs. In Inverted Retrograde Theme, USA, Simon Starling recreates two of the existing homes on a smaller scale and inverts them like birdcages; these models sit atop tree trunks that extend from the gallery’s floor.
‘Gastroliths’ is a collection of 1088 pictures of pebbles from the stomach of one capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), a large bird living in old pineforests situated in rocky territory. Most herbivorous birds eat stones to help grind their food.
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot‘s installation ‘from here to ear’ (2009/2010) consists of a group of birds in an environment fitted with amplified guitars. The birds compose live music every day during the course of the exhibition.
The Birds
A scene from Alfred Hitchcock‘s classic ‘The Birds‘ (1963).
‘Untitled (or The Birds without the birds, or give us today our daily terror)’, (2008 – ongoing) by Martijn Hendriks.
Exact copy of Hitchcock’s 1963 film The Birds from which all birds have been removed.
Another scene:
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