PAULA McCARTNEY (BIRD WATCHING) in conversation with DARIUS HIMES at KLOMPCHING GALLERY this SATURDAY, MARCH 3rd · Mar 3, 03:33 PM
KLOMPCHING GALLERY presents
Paula McCartney — Bird Watching
March 4 — April 23, 2010
111 Front Street, Suite 206, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Opening Reception:
Wednesday, March 3, 6pm—8pm
In Conversation:
Saturday March 6, 1pm—2pm
Paula McCartney will discuss her work with Darius Himes and sign copies of her new book Bird Watching.
From our Spring 2010 catalog:
At first glance, conceptual artist Paula McCartney’s Bird Watching seems to be a most exemplary specimen of a bird-watching journal. Handwritten notations recording species, location, size, and markings describe well-rendered and flawlessly composed photographs of a wide variety of passerines, or perching birds, in their natural settings in locations across the United States. Page after page of the most wonderfully diverse species of birds are perfectly posed in picturesque natural settings—a bird-watcher’s dream.
On second glance, however, the birds appear a bit too carefully arranged amid the tangle of brush and branches. An even closer look reveals stiff wire protrusions mounting each bird to its perch, matted tufts of overdyed faux feathers forming wings and splashes of paint creating eyes and beaks. McCartney has activated her atmospheric landscapes by adding synthetic decorative birds purchased at craft stores. This startling revelation has you wondering if the artificial might ultimately be more satisfying than the natural. Part document and part fiction, Paula McCartney’s Bird Watching is a fanciful, homespun field guide to a woodland twilight zone where our unconscious need to control nature is indulged and our search for an unattainable ideal natural experience is fulfilled. Featuring a design that mimics the tactility of a real bird-watching journal and including essays by Darius Himes and Karen Irvine, this book will appeal to the dreamy naturalist in all of us.
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TODAY: PROVISIONAL lecture at the University of Miami's Jorge M. Perez Architecture Center BIRD WATCHING photo is the PDN Photo of the Day