Birds in glass cabinets tell their dreams of flying

Some years ago I visited the Bird Collection at the Natural History Museum Vienna, which was a surreal experience. It holds more than 130.000 objects: skins, skeletons, eggs, and tissues. More than 10.000 mounted birds form part of the systematic collection. About 25% are permanently on display in the public galleries.

My immedeate reaction was to take some pictures of the glass cabinets with the mounted birds. Looking at these pictures I thought: 10.000 silenced birds, no sounds of nature: death by taxonomy. Beauty by death. These thoughts were the concept for the video and sound piece Death by Taxonomy (Naturlaut).

Death by Taxonomy (Naturlaut)

Recently I developed another video using the material for Death by Taxonomy (Naturlaut) and aditional material of living birds to create the video piece Birds in glass caninets tell their dreams of flying. If you have read my blog post I can’t title this (or the art of titling) you will guess that this tile is a reference to Danielle Baquet-Long aka Chubby Wolf, who had a special relationship with birds affecting her music (Ornitheology, for example, my absolute desert island music) as well as her writing (Bird Scraps).

The music I wrote for the video is a 40 minute ambient/drone piece dedicated to the memory of Danielle Baquet-Long, who died of heart failure on July 8, 2009. I’ve tried to write music reminiscent of Danielle’s exceptional work as Chubby Wolf, which I hope, she would approove of – Maybe. (but) probably not.

In this piece of music birds in glass cabinets tell their dreams of flying. In the video the immages of birds in glass cabinets, birds sitting on a wire and flying are put in dialogue with Danielle’s deaply mooving poem Bird Scraps 10 about death and birds:

When I die
All that will be left
Is my name
In some race
Half-way down the list –
Mediocrity –
Although I did not strive for that.

(What your fingers would look like
On the table
Reading my old poetry)

When I die
All that will be left
Is some words
On scraps of some sort
Scattered somewhere –
Ubiquity –
Maybe.  (but) probably not.

(What your fingers would look like
On the table contained in
A delicate niche,
Peacefully attached.

Swans are engaged
In feeding.

All the while
On the water,

Gliding.

Birds in glass cabinets tell their dreams of flying will be premierred on YouTube on Saturday, June 8, 2023, starting at 21:45 CET.