“What I want to establish in my works is a relationship to life, to motion and to the physical presence, rather than the chance character inherent in the phenomena or situations that I use as sources of sonic activity.”
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, March 2010
A flock of Zebra finches greeted me as I entered in to the Barbican’s Curve gallery. There are an equal number of male and female zebra finches in the gallery, I later read, which explained the different colours of birds.
As I walked around the space, the birds flew about landing on Les Paul guitars, often on the strings plucking the strings with their claws. One bird was busy making a nest of grass inside the bottom of the guitar head and warned me off with some stern cheeping.
Another collection of birds were stood in an up-turned cymbals filled with water, and another bird was pecking away at another cymbal filled with food.
I am not usually amazed and amused by art installations, but this really captured my attention, watching what they would do next. Hoping that one bird would get excited on top of the guitar enough to make some fantastic sounds.
Closing on 23 May 2010, if you can make it along I would recommend doing so. Get there early as the queue can build up quickly.
The Barbican website has more information: barbican.org.uk
The Wire magazine interviewed Boursier-Mougenot and also produced a video of their visit.
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