Les oiseaux électriques
Posted: April 18th, 2010 | Author: knot | Filed under: I ♥ moozik | Comments OffSome things are worth waiting for…
The popularity of Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s installation at The Barbican’s Curve gallery dictates a queue of at least 40 minutes length but a trifling test of your patience is a small price to pay for the delights held within.
The atmosphere of the introductory dark space with giant projections of fingers on fretboards and burbling electronic sounds is compelling enough but one is drawn quickly and magnetically to the end of this tunnel and the forewarned spectacle that awaits.
A turn of the corner reveals an almost starkly lit contrasting space consisting of pale wooden decking, tiny grass and sand dunes, and a number of raised sculptural figures. The occasional familiar clanging sound of amplified electric guitar merges with the twittering of a small host of zebra finches who are hard at work with the tasks of their daily life. The sculptural figures are a selection of electric guitars, basses and cymbals lying flat, strings upwards which act as perches for these tiny colourful creatures. As they eat, drink and attempt to nest amongst the steel strings and upturned cymbal plates an intriguing weave of sound is created.
The birds are of course, entirely oblivious to their central role in an artistic installation and the chance incidents which result from their interactions create the charm of this piece. They are unsurprisingly, highly conditioned to human company and within a couple of minutes one has settled on each of my shoulders – unfortunately, I am not wearing my prototype Kraftwerk sound-generating jacket. These zebra finches seem to have an almost unnatural propensity to nest and despite their wall mounted boxes, seem intent on stuffing every crevice including the guitar strings with dry grass twigs. I imagine Derek Bailey’s space in heaven may resemble this room – Trafalgar Square it is not (that’s me closest in the foreground).
Photography is not allowed and the welfare of the birds is strictly monitored with an authentic day and night cycle where visitors are banned from entry.
Highly recommended.
On a side-note, as I was in the area I thought I’d pop in to the Record Store Day event at Rough Trade in Brick Lane. As expected, the area was crawling with daft looking “hipsters” and the prospect of a 50 people long queue (to get into a shop!) sent me reeling off on a no doubt much more enjoyable walk home in the late afternoon sun. I later spotted this tweet from Rough Trade: “I like to say a big #rsd10 fuck you to the vile ppl selling the beatles/blur/ etc on eBay for silly money after buying it off us for £4.99 ” – well what did you expect??? A misplaced concern if ever I saw one – any berk willing to pay in excess of £4.99 for a Blur or Beatles 7″ deserves no sympathy whatsoever!
I will leave my thoughts on Record Store (shouldn’t that be Shop?) Day with the mighty Max Tundra: “Celebrate Record Store Day by buying a bunch of LPs, taping them for your mates and then returning them to the shop. #rsd10″
