Birds Pub Vol. 1-3
The installation Birds Pub OnLine at Wäinö Aaltonen Art Museum was the first public presentation of this new body of work. Visitors could sit on the sofa and look into our garden in Korpo from a screen. They could also read books on birds and make studies in real-time in our Birds Pub. The installation also included an old bird’s nest from our garden, books about birds, a notebook, and wallpaper by Birger Kaipiainen (Ken on kiuruista kaunein).
In the following few years, I continued working with this thematics. The exhibitions series Birds Pub Vol. 1.- 3.mostly consists of videos and photography and installation Night Club. Video works Happy Hour 2:02h, We Can tell You, 4 min and Birds Night, loop.
I am not quite done with the birds yet… There are still some things I want to do with the materials. Meanwhile, we continue to feed the birds, and I continue my artistic work with them.
Happy Hour 2:02 h
Nature is
Man has been feeding birds and wild animals for ages. Not only in order for those to survive through winters, but also because it’s fascinating and even comforting to follow their lives. When observing wild creatures the circle of life starts to imperceptibly close up, and all the roar of the world and everything else fades away: there is only this moment.
At times the bird’s pub looks like a decoration on our yard. On the other hand, the pork rinds, seeds and droppings of the birds look rather unscrupulous when having a closer look. Visual artist Renja Leino is fascinated by this concurrency of the unscrupulous and opulence. The surrounding nature and the animals of it as well as the birds eating frantic, brawls and territorial battles bring a poignant addition into observing the nature and astonish from day today.
The behaviour of the birds begins to resemble the human being itself. While observing the birds, thoughts might slowly travel to ponder values, hunger. It is clear, that feeding the animals during the winters is possible at wealthy times. So we put some more savoury to the bird’s pub. The birds appear as invited, and for a moment it feels like we’d know each other. It might really be like that, but what do we actually know about that either? Nature does not care. Nature is.