Everyday when I head to work I cycle past this old farmhouse, which is stuck between the freeway to Amsterdam and the canal. The first time I saw the space from afar I thought it had a really erie feeling.
Anyway, this weekend there was an art exhibition at the space. The old stables and farmhouse had been converted into a temporary exhibition space… showing my old favorite… video installations. Anyway, it was quite strange staring at a video project down a hallway, between two horse stables. At the same time as watching a film on chickens I had two horses staring at me. The horses started to get a bit reared up with there company. I wasn’t sure if they wanted a pat or if they wanted us to piss off.
Anyway, the most interesting work I just about totally dismissed. There was a sign asking if I wanted to be a bird. The thought of acting out being a bird, didn’t really sound up alley. All the theatrical talents went to my sisters.
Anyway, on recommendation from someone else at the exhibition I went back to the booth shaped like a birdhouse. This artist Thija van Vuure is a selft taught artist and biologist. Through his work he began to study different bird species calls. He takes sound and video recordings of different Dutch Birds. He then explored the idea of slowing the sound speed of the bird call to a human life length. From this he discovered it was possible for humans to imitate a bird-call. So you head into the small intimate birdhouse booth, feeling like a real idiot you imitate the sounds of the bird call. The artist then speeds these recordings up to the speed of the short birds life span. From this the human bird call is born… for a whole audience on the outside of the booth to watch you make a real dick of yourself making a bird call.
Luckily we haven’t been posted on U-tube… but there are a few others on Thija’s webpage.
http://www.thijsvanvuure.nl
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