Chasing A Bee - Reprise

My friends at Southsea Coffee Co. are supporting Tonic Music For Mental Health with a head shaving event and art auction on Sunday 29th May from 4pm to 5pm.

The auction includes work donated by major names from the local arts communities including MDS, Midge, _feop_, Samo and many others along with myself.

This post is about the bird sculpture that I'm donating.

If you can't make it on the Sunday, here's a link to their fundraising page.
If you can contribute, it would be excellent. If you can't, then at least share :)

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These birds, these birds. What do they represent for me? What are our relationships? How do I read them? I've written quite a lot about the landscapes and the different ways that they're read by myself and others, but not much about the birds.
My relationship with them has largely been fairly shallow, pragmatic and ambivalent since I started making them. Each is unique - independent. From conception to delivery, their journeys are often more convoluted and complex than their static appearance belies.

As a creator, the process is equally as important as the eventual outcome. The journey, without a doubt influences the form of the final piece. Many times they start as one thing and end up as something completely other. The fundamental building of a piece is the most controllable and predictable part of the process - but the formation of the story and the context surrounding each one, directly and physically affects its appearance over time in completely unpredictable ways. It enriches, informs and elevates what might be regarded as a mundane ornament into a piece that claims its own space and identity, its own life. Take this piece for example. This is already a remarkably well travelled bird.

I love the challenge of capturing strong dynamic movement in my pieces. These are living beings. When they are stretching for something they are extraordinary; like cats - with that lightweight construction in a loose flexible package that allows them to defy gravity with a finely controlled elegance. I am lucky enough to live by a large open space where the crowds and crows gather in the summer to feed. The people pick at disposable barbecues and the crows pick at everything that's left behind. When the crowds are gone, the crows remain and scavenge for whatever they can catch. In this case, I was watching this particular bird, darting about in a crazy pattern on the ground looking like a complete novice, until I noticed the fat bee that it was chasing. This fellow was coming to me directly from his prehistoric predatory past in pursuit of his prey. Watching him in action was to experience a fundamental resonance of his ancestors' behaviour.

Except that's not entirely true. There was no bee. I made that up. There was a crow, darting about, unsuccessfully trying to steal a peanut before the other birds got there. It was a bit of a dunce as crows go. All of the youthful vigour, with none of the nous of older, more experienced birds. All action and no focus. And that came through in the initial sculpture - lots of pointless running about, chasing aimlessly...

But he was done - finished - ready. I photographed him, put him up on Big Cartel, Artfinder, Instagram, Twitter - all the usual places, to a lukewarm "Mhhmm" from those audiences. That was ok. Sometimes pieces need space and time to grow into themselves. For a while he kicked about aimlessly like a shiftless teenager, and then I stuck him on EBay.

He was eventually bought by a lady in Cheltenham. Then promptly returned as "Not working/Defective". A subtle but accurate description of his failure to impress, as both a character and a sculpture. It turned out that this woman had bought him as a gift for her autistic grandson who had befriended a wild crow in his garden. The boys mother was horrified at the sharp edges and afraid that her son would cut himself to ribbons. Granny insisted that it was 'unsuitable for sale' on Health and Safety grounds. I pointed out that this was a sculpture - not a toy! During the negotiation for the return however, it transpired that Granny and her husband run an online contemporary glass and ceramics gallery... Make of it what you will. Ultimately, I gave in and refunded their money. The bird came back. But now he was beginning to develop a patina, some kind of sheen - a bit of character.

Music often provides a useful reference point. I remembered a track called 'Chasing A Bee' from the first Mercury Rev album 'Yerself Is Steam'. It struck me as a nice metaphor for this crow and his living counterpart. The bird and the bee bumbling about aimlessly and energetically. There was a resonance in the idea. They could focus on each other, which gives them both a sense of direction and a relationship. So I made a bee. We all need a bee...

Around the same time, I decided that this piece needed a different kind of exposure. An alternate route into whatever life he will eventually lead, a different purpose and a new platform from which he could speak about his misspent youth chasing bees, his mistaken identity and his return, and his transformation and completion through finding a redeeming spirit that resonates on so many levels. So they will go together to raise awareness and funds in the event below.

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**Reprise

My friends at Southsea Coffee Co. are supporting Tonic Music For Mental Health with a head shaving event and art auction on Sunday 29th May from 4pm to 5pm.

The auction includes work donated by major names from the local arts communities including MDS, Midge, _feop_, Samo and many others along with myself.

If you can't make it on the Sunday, here's a link to their fundraising page.
If you can contribute, it would be excellent. If you can't, then at least share :)