Mid-term project: Clipped
Involves the arrangement of a series of artwork in a grid pattern to simulate a window, which is the most common cause of bird deaths in Singapore.
Visited the lab at NUS to document relatively fresh carcasses, with the assistance of researcher David Tan of NUS and photographer Jasvic Lye, an undergraduate from NTU ADM.
The six birds documented are as follows:
Banded Bay Cuckoo
Blue-tailed bee-eater
Asian glossy starling
Spotted dove
Oriental pied hornbill
Zebra dove
Most of them are local species, with the bee-eater being a common migratory species which appear often in Singapore. All are of least concern in the IUCN red list.
Singapore has around 300 native species of birds, the sample size is relatively large (5%). The asian glossy starling and the spotted dove are two of the most common species found in Singapore (DECADAL CHANGES IN URBAN BIRD ABUNDANCE IN SINGAPORE, Chong et al., 2012, p 191) though the zebra dove was excluded as it was not included in surveys conducted earlier for a fair comparison.
Table retrieved from Chong’s study, page 193.
Currently thinking of using matte prints in terms of material. Could be expanded to glass to signify the fragility of the birds and how they die due to window collisions, but it is blunt and cliche.
Printing on glass would be interesting but out of my means at the moment.
Collaboration with David in the remaining time of the semester seems impossible due to his commitments elsewhere.
Artist influences
In addition to Basia Irland and Criss Jordan as mentioned in class, there are a few other artists that have influenced my work and my style to a certain extent.
They include Benjamin von Wong, Andy Goldsworthy, Agnes Denes, Charles Ross and Nancy Holt.