Randy GLEDHILL, Canada

Born 1951, lives and works in Vancouver.

“It’s for the Birds” is a site-specific, durational work (sunrise to sunset) for/with the songbirds in a public park with trees where birds live and where people also congregate. The problem is – how do I communicate with the birds? What are our common interests? What can I learn from them? What can I teach them? Helpful tips on bird safety? Possible new migration routes? Laws of aerodynamics? I am also inviting the attending public to participate and possibly to even become birds. Since this action is happening in foreign lands (where the birds have different native languages than me), I will need the help of a translator. We will be communicating largely using bird-calls and noise-makers. Of course, there will be a collection of bird-themed books for audience research. This event is child positive. Cats are not welcome.

I guess you could say it is somewhat ‘Tongue in Beak’ (after Marcel Duchamp‘s “With My Tongue in My Cheek” 1959)

In these interventions that combine notions of site-specific performance, relationalism and social sculpture; the public audience becomes first a voyeur, then an unwitting participant, then a conspirator. I am trying to fashion the most gentle, mannered and formal relationships possible. It is a delicate balance to win peopleʼs trust and collaboration. Humor and humility are important elements. I try to reveal an intellectual and slightly subversive core. People donʼt relate to my new work like they are being entertained as at a clown show. They understand that I am presenting a model for something intellectual and meaningful. The very personal human (or inter-species) relationship I propose becomes mesmerizing.