GALLERY 2 -
A bird's perspective on humans
What I am asking of birds: to open up our imaginations to other ways of thinking, to break away from certain routines, to highlight the effects of certain types of attention--
-Vinciane Despret, Living as a Bird
What I am asking of birds: to open up our imaginations to other ways of thinking, to break away from certain routines, to highlight the effects of certain types of attention--
-Vinciane Despret, Living as a Bird
the return of the damoiseau
In the Middle Ages a damoiseau was a young man of noble birth, a squire, not yet proclaimed a knight. This category of men matched that of the demoiselle or damsel for women. Paul applies this reasoning to her birds, and leans towards giving them a masculine identity given that male birds are often more colourful and flamboyant than their female counterparts. And the reason the series is more masculine in the way it is conceived, in the choice of the found images used, which are more connected to the world of masculinity as it is experienced and imagined today, is because it seeks to evoke the patriarchal spirit (including the mentality of the object-body, whether male or female) still dominant in the world despite centuries of resistance.
-Becoming Bird in Silent Fall, by Chantal Pontbriand, 2023
Damoiseaux, insects of Surinam and Maps
Paul dissolves the boundaries between humans, wildlife and technology to explore a complex and vulnerable world. These re-imagined surreal hybrid installations, collages and performance artworks warn of socio-economic collapse and extinction, highlighting the interconnectedness of the viewers with endangered ecosystems.
Gallery 2 slideshow: click on the arrows to view the individual artwork
Gallery 2 Overview - les damoiseaux
Overview -gALLERY 2 AND 1 AND tALK-TO-ME, INTERACTIVE SOUND PIECE
See Talk-to-Me demonstration video here
Eastern Meadowlark and bobolink
2021 (RC*)
*Credits and thanks to Rafa Cruz for the pictures marked RC
whooping crane
2020 (RC)
eskimo curlew
2020 (RC)
damoiseaux - Long wall overview
2020-2021 (see list)
overview - Damoiseaux installation
(RC)
northern bobwhite and eastern whip-poor-will
2021 (RC)
bald eagle
2020
caspian tern
2020
overview - corner
(RC)
Insects of Surinam 35
2019 (RC)
insects of surinam 29
2017
insects of surinam 32
2017
insects of surinam 21
2014
gallery 2 overview - exit towards gallery 3
cut, cut, cut the boreal forest - north america's bird nursery
2022
tax havens - uk spider's web
2022 (RC)
red-headed woodpecker
2020
tALK-TO-ME DEMONSTRATION VIDEO, 2023
Mapping socio-economical injustice
It is in this intersection of the static and the performative that the spoken word poem Cut, Cut, Cut the Boreal Forest–North America’s Bird Nursery (2022) confronts viewers with the consequences of human exploitation, urging them to reconsider their relationship and assumptions of the natural world.
