It is the beautiful bird…. which gets caged – not caged exactly, but their likeness immortalised on film and in fabric.
When I was in the Jonathan Adler store last week I came across the work of Leila Jeffreys in her series the portraits of budgerigar. Having looked on her website I think the two shown are – Mrs Plume and Terry. The pictures of the birds are printed on a large-scale and consequently their beauty becomes very apparent as the scale is off kilter. The colour is so striking too.
Leila’s work then started me thinking about the photography of Andrew Zuckerman who also plays with scale – and setting. His bird images are set against stark white backgrounds and have always fascinated me, particularly his parrots (the blue & yellow macaw below is a fav). I constantly kick myself that I didn’t buy some of his prints last year when they were available on 20×200
If you want to see these more bird images by Andrew Zuckerman they are available here
I’ve always had a soft spot for pictures of birds and bird motifs but I find it funny that birds are so polarizing. Both my husband and also a good friend have a problem with birds inside – be that live ones or their likenesses, but both are fine with them in the wild/outside. I know neither would do well with the 3D birds (below) recently spotted at London Design Festival.
When I was at Origin (see post) I came across the beautiful 3 dimensional textile sculptures of birds by Abigail Brown – they just look so friendly (above). Her work is all hand made; hand sewn by Abigail in her studio. I was smitten. And at Tent I came cross Donya Coward’s 3D sculpture, which she calls textile taxidermy. Each of Donya’s creations is carefully made by hand from reclaimed materials using traditional techniques and crafts skills utilising hooks, glass buttons and jewellery that give sparkle and texture to the details.
Images from Mary Middleton Design, 20×200, Abigail Brown, Donya Coward and Leila Jeffreys.