sound installation
2001
ucla hammer museum
los angeles
bird forms was originally created for the exhibition ‘snapshot’ at the ucla hammer museum in los angeles. it also travelled to the miami museum of contemporary art in miami florida.
the piece was initially inspired by the trees in the center courtyard of the hammer museum, and i wanted to create a piece for the trees that had a similar presence to birds landing and wandering around all the branches. the installation involved 8 tracks of audio spread out over 40 small speakers placed on various branches. the source materials were acoustic recordings of dried leaves and twigs, as well as some early 78 rpm recordings of bird songs. all sounds were manipulated and transformed electronically via analog guitar pedals and electronics. the piece was intended to converse with the somewhat fractured nature of the trees in the middle of a very unnatural landscape. these images are from this initial installation at the hammer, and in miami the piece was installed in front of the museum, along a long concrete walkway, suggestive of audio ghosts of the original landscape.