Garrett Phelan, 'Battle for the Birds.' , Installation detail. 2009, MIMA, middlesbrough, UK.
   
 

Garrett Phelan Basel Statement 2008 - 'Battle for the Birds'.


The 'Battle for the Birds' (2008) installation was originally created for Art Statements; Art Basel 39 and was loosely based around a 16th Century painting by Flemish artist Frans Snyder entitled ‘Battle of the Birds’. Garrett Phelan's installation takes the form of  drawings, animation, sculpture and sound. In Snyder’s vicious and violent painting bird fights bird for territorial control, here Phelan illustrates and describes on behalf of the avian community a type of politicised take-over, threat or revolt against the human population whose treatment of the earth has been, thus far, shamefully inadequate.

This body of work has toured the UK as part of 'End of the Line-attidudes in drawing', a touring show initiated by Southbank Centre the Hayward during 2009.

Installation contents:



Mutant Finch drawings

Mynah Drawings
Large Mynah Drawings
Ringed Drawings
Roding Glowing Woodcock on Reconnaissance
After the Mynahs - Radio Tomb
Agitprop - Songs of Principles
HIDE
Thank God For Us - (Animation)

Venue installation shots



Middlesbrough institute of Modern Art
CentreSquare,
Middlesbrough TS1 2AZ
UK
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