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Birds of a Feather
"The great diversity of feather structures leads to a great diversity of function, both in nature and in the realms of human invention."
-- Thor Hanson, 2011
Birds boast some of the most extraordinary biological and behavioral patterns in the natural world. One of the first steps to identifying a bird is to look for field marks -- distinctive stripes, spots, and colors that distinguish one species from another. For ornithologists and enthusiasts, these marks signal whether an individual is male or female, molting or mating, captive or wild and provide an important tool for classification and cataloguing. Much like a work of art, a bird's appearance can change dramatically based on the structure and arrangement of its feathers.
For artists Laurel Roth Hope and Fred Tomaselli, the variegated forms of the avian world are a source of inspiration. Both artists employ a meticulous process of collage and assemblage to create richly patterned works that conflate nature and popular culture. In one artwork, Tomaselli addresses the ways that humans adapt to and interact with the environment by superimposing L.L. Bean outerwear on images of birds, while Roth Hope uses objects intended for human adornment to mimic peacock plumage. These ironic inversions encourage us to contemplate how adaptation and instinct manifest in our own lives and behaviors |