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Update #5: 8 Months Later
Dear Pigeon PODS supporters,
I am writing you with great news. That project you funded all those many months ago? It's still going! Just recently I packed up the projects from the public art platform of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia so that the PODS could be picked up and returned to North Carolina for two upcoming exhibitions.
The first is in Greensboro at the Green Hills Center on August 5th. As part of the Gallery Nomads exhibit, the Pigeon PODS will be on Davie Street at the Cultural Art Center from 4-8. After that it move to Raleigh to the Museum of Natural Sciences to be exhibited in conjunction with my exhibit of pigeon paintings in the Museum's art gallery.
Thank you all so much for being the start of such a long and successful artistic journey. If you haven't yet had a chance to see the exhibit, hopefully one of these two chances will work for you. You can always see images on my website, www.mattzigler.com, which got a recent overhaul, and you can get twitter updates @mattziglerart.
Also, if you are interested, you can read the article that the Philadelphia Inquirer ran about the project here.
Update #4: Stop Number 1 - SparkCON
The Pigeon POD has finished its first stop and will be coming to Bynum soon. It will continue to evolve as some exhibits are changed and others are added to. There are three pigeon taxidermies that did not make it in time for the SparkCON show that should be arriving soon to work their way into the exhibit. Also, work will begin on the extended version of the show that will be on display in Philadelphia in December.
Here is a link to a photo album showing all the exhibits as well as the educational info and shots of people enjoying the displays. Thank you all for helping to make this project a success!
http://picasaweb.google.com/matthewzigler/PigeonPODSSparkCon...
Update #3: The Pigeon POD is Underway!
On a hot and steamy Saturday morning last weekend I began constructing the display boards that will show the paintings, posters and vitrines that will display the work of Red Lahore. This weekend the temperature is supposed to dip into the mid 80's and I plan to be back out there, finishing the display boards and constructing the chicken wire front that Red imagined would convert a typical POD into an emergency pigeon coop.
Here is an album of images to the progress so far: http://picasaweb.google.com/matthewzigler/PigeonPODSConstruction...
Check back for updates after the long weekend! Here's to laboring on Labor Day!
Matt
Update #2: Who was Red Lahore?
Red Lahore, who's pseudonym comes from a breed of domesticated pigeon, was born in 1934 and grew up in Harbor Beach, Michigan. Because his real name and identity are still unknown, the only source of information about him comes from his personal journal, found within the PODS unit that stored his life's work.
Lahore eventually became a PhD candidate at Duke University in the Zoology department. Scheduled to complete his dissertation in 1965, Lahore makes no reference to receiving his doctorate, and due to his eventual retreat from the world to explore his obsession with pigeons, it seems likely that he left before completion. He did, however, have in his possession a copy of a 1964 paper published in Biological Bulletin titled, Sun Compass Orientation of Pigeons Upon Displacement North of the Arctic Circle. It seems plausible that Lahore was a grad student involved in this research, perhaps even playing the role of transporting the birds north of the arctic circle to Barrow, Alaska. It would certainly fit given his eventual efforts. Read the paper here: http://www.biolbull.org/cgi/reprint/127/1/154.pdf
As work continues on the restoration of the items found in Lahore's storage unit, more information will be collected. We do know at this point an anecdote from Lahore himself that mentions his first encounter with the idea, if not the reality, of pigeons. On family trips across the thumb of Michigan,
“We would pass through the town of Pigeon sometimes. It was probably the name that struck me as funny at first. It is a funny sounding word after all. But eventually it became interesting because I never saw a pigeon in Pigeon. I would ask my father about it, but he didn’t have an answer except that “there must have been pigeons there once!” He would say that they were lucky they were gone. I didn’t really understand why he thought that. The few pigeons I had seen in Harbor Beach hadn’t seemed very bad. It wasn’t until years later when I was at Duke that I realized that the name must have come from the Passenger Pigeon,hunted to extinction in Michigan and Wisconsin.” (Excerpt from Red Lahore's journal)
Update #1: Propaganda Posters
Attached is an image of one of the damaged posters that was designed and printed by Red Lahore. The image shows a passenger pigeon perched on a branch in front of a red and black background with the word "Genocide" across the top. I am still working to restore the bottom portion of the image, but you can get a sense of how strongly Lahore felt about the way passenger pigeons were hunted to extinction and try to manipulate the viewer with a highly emotive word.
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on September 17, 2010.
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A 5 x 7 postcard of one of four fancy pigeon paintings from Red Lahore's breed chart, as well as a signed invitation to the show in Philadelphia.
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A set of 4 5 x 7 postcards of fancy pigeon paintings from Red Lahore's breed chart, as well as a signed invitation to the show in Philadelphia.
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An 11 x 17 print of one of Red Lahore's pigeon propaganda posters, plus a signed invitation to the show in Philadelphia.
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A complete set of 4 11 x 17 pigeon propaganda posters from Red Lahore, plus a signed invitation of the show in Philadelphia.
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Own a piece of history. When the show is complete you can choose one of the 18 pigeon breed paintings included in the Pigeon POD. This item is first come, first served! Paintings are oil on panel, 12 x 12 inches.
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The natural world is full of little dramas, narratives and moments of profound value. Sometimes we notice them, often we don't. What happens when you learn a new word or see a new face, and from that point on you keep seeing it everywhere? It seems like it had never existed before, but you know that it was there all along and you have simply made a place for it in your mind.
This happened to me on the streets of Philadelphia. I knew there were pigeons everywhere, they simply did not stick in my brain. I walked past them and they were gone. And then I saw a beige pigeon amidst all the grey and black ones. Why that particular bird flipped a switch in my mind I have no idea. Why does anything attract our interest and hold on for great lengths of time? After that day I learned more about pigeons, and I have watched them pecking, flapping, preening and courting beneath the feet and above the heads of Philadelphians who are unaware of the lives being lived around them.
How have we become so desensitized to the natural world? How have we come to compartmentalize the environment into organisms worth paying attention to and organisms beneath our contempt? Through my paintings and installations I provide "beige pigeon moments" for my viewers. By making art about these moments, I create an opportunity to see a larger world where the connections between ourselves, other organisms, and the spaces we inhabit might just stick in our brains, so that we can start to see them everywhere.
