Assemblage – Pheasant feathers, seeds, paper maché.
100cm x 100cm.
Not for sale.
Many pheasants inhabit this part of the country. Unfortunately, their road sense is not the best, and many birds can be found on the side of the roads. My appreciation for the feathers of this bird was not present until I had examined its multi-hued plumage up close. This piece is dedicated to these magnificent, but sometimes daft, birds. May they survive the hunter’s guns, and driver’s cars.
Using a canvas as a base, each feather was individually fixed into place by piercing through the canvas, inserting the feather so that it stands upright, and fixing with a dab of glue behind the canvas. Like so much of my sculptural work, it becomes a meditation to complete.
The frame is a hollow structure which is then clad in a thick layer of paper maché pulp. Without a drying room at the time, the frame took over a month to fully dry! This medium is, in my opinion, much maligned as a material fit for children only, yet its properties of lightness, strength and availability make it a material that I come back to time and time again.
