Bill Burns and Adriana Kuiper: Bird Songs and Storm Shelters
Bill Burns, Bird Radio, 2007 Installation view / photo K. J. Bedford
One of the paradoxes of an increasingly urbanized society is that any experience of untamed wildlife outside of a zoo or natural history museum is often a rarefied one. Sightings of a Red-tailed Hawk in downtown Toronto, for instance, set off a frenzy of public interest with near-celebrity proportions.
Artist Bill Burns has long been interested in this disconnected human relationship with the natural world. From his 1-800-ECOSFEAR audio project, which offered options on how to help “client animals” escape from degraded habitats, to the recent Museum of Safety Gear for Small Animals, a meticulously-crafted collection of small-scale animal safety paraphernalia, rescue kits and accompanying publications, Burns has offered a subversively conceptual answer to questions of modern animal welfare.
For his latest project, Bird Radio, Burns creates a multimedia platform designed as a study of not only the elusive urban presence of the natural world but also the authenticity of interpretation through various strategies of communication. In it, a chandelier-like device jerry-rigged with recordings of 17 different bird calls hangs above a trio of modern chairs. When viewers sit and activate the apparatus, bird songs are transmitted to a local radio frequency, 88.4 FM. A video of children demonstrating the bird calls and a selection of schematic drawings add further layers of experiential complexity to this exploration of nature by proxy.
On view concurrently is Over-neath, a new sculpture by Sackville-based and 2006 Sobey Art Award finalist artist Adriana Kuiper. Working from do-it-yourself plans for underground storm shelters and commonplace hardware materials, Kuiper has fashioned an enclosed structure that is as much a relic of Cold War–era neuroses as it is a model of the creative abandon of childhood play. Either way, it is a pointed reminder of the innate human need for safe hiding places. (101 Queen St N, Kitchener ON)
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Adriana Kuiper, Capsule, 2008 Installation view / photo K. J. Bedford |
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