Join us for a talk by four contemporary artists making work about birds and birdwatching: Daniel & Clara, Andy Holden, Marcus Coates and Hanna Tuulikki.
From the art of nest building, the politics of plumage and the history of egg collecting, to the language of bird songs and birdwatching as a ritual for reaching beyond the human, this talk explores how artists speak to the wider picture of human/animal dynamics and ultimately seek to rethink our relationship with the natural world.
Each artist will give a short presentation about their work, followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Free event, book here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-talk-contemporary-artists-birdwatching-tickets-835699528787
This event has been made possible with the support of Arts Council England.
Biogs
Daniel & Clara
Since meeting in 2010 Daniel & Clara have dedicated themselves to a shared life of creative experimentation, working across moving image, photography, performance and mail art to explore the nature of human experience, perception and reality.
Their current projects focus on the fraught and complex relationship between humans and the natural world, particularly exploring the climate crisis as a psychological crisis and the ways in which this manifests in the imagination.
Visit their website here
Andy Holden
Andy Holden creates large installations, sculpture, painting, pop music, performance, animation, curation, and video installations. His work is often defined by personal starting points used to arrive at more abstract philosophical questions.
Holden’s work Natural Selection (2017) was made in collaboration with his father, Peter Holden, who is an ornithologist. The multimedia piece with bird nests, eggs and imagery explores questions of nature and nurture and people’s changing relationship with the natural world.
Visit Andy Holden’s website here
Marcus Coates
By exploring the lived realities of people, animals and nature, Marcus Coates attempts to understand how we relate to each other and the world around us. He re-enacts states of being – a process of radical empathy – to question what it means to be alive now, our history and future. His motivation is to create, examine and critique relational tools. Sometimes, these explorations move beyond the limits of conventional language.
He works collaboratively, bringing in members of the public, individuals, organisations and institutions, as well as experts from a wide range of disciplines. These include: anthropologists, ornithologists, wildlife sound recordists, choreographers, politicians, psychiatrists, palliative care consultants, musicians and primatologists. Together with Coates, they seek answers to questions about humanity, the natural world and the crossovers between them.
Visit Marcus Coates’ website here
Hanna Tuulikki
Hanna Tuulikki’s multi-disciplinary projects investigate the ways in which the body communicates beyond and before words, to tell stories through imitation, vocalisation and gesture.
In her work, she often draws on embodied vernacular knowledges; in particular, practices of vocal and gestural mimesis of the more-than-human, to offer alternative approaches to making kin, both with one other, and across multi-species entanglements. Her most recent work engages with vital questions about what it means to live on a damaged planet, proposing contemporary, queer ritual, as a means to process the trauma that comes with ecological awareness.
Find out more about Hanna Tuulikki here
