fallen bird 1
Posted July 18, 2007
Birds show up a lot in graffiti, which is not surprising. Bird imagery shows up a lot in art in general, from cave painting (a related medium, in terms of technique and materials), to contemporary.
I’ve seen several variants of “fallen birds” on sidewalks and trash cans and what have you over the past few years. A sad and inherently poignant image of innocent beauty beaten down. However, with the bird image comes the associated idea that it might just be a temporary state of affairs prior to bouncing back and returning to life.
In an alternate version, the bird seems to have crashed on it’s belly, legs trailing behind like curls of smoke. I took a picture of one of these recently where the X’d out eye had been replaced by an open, round sun-shape, circled by bright rays. “Don’t count me out yet”…
A related topic: the story of the “Listen Bird”, recently sighted very much alive, in Edmonton Alberta. In multiple variations appearing around the city, the painted image of a bird appears, juxtaposed with the word “Listen”, often with styled text integrated with a signature icon; a little sun coming up over a hill. Occasionally, Listen, (as the bird is now known), appears instead with its anagram: “silent”.
For some photos, here’s a link to the Listen Bird Group pool at Flickr. For some background, here’s a news story published by the Edmonton Journal.