Nests
A Collaboration with Nature
One spring, while gardening with my mother, she asked me to add flowers to two planters. Inside one was a nest with five robins, which I carefully put back. Inside the other planter was an empty nest. I placed that nest--the humblest of all structures--on an ornate marble pedestal in the center of my studio.
I began to collect abandoned nests in various states of disintegration and study them. The nest--a combination of earth, moss, twigs, leaves and other discarded materials--is formed of two parts: an inside symmetrical sphere, where the birds live and raise their children, and an outer asymmetrical sphere. The coexistence of perfection and imperfection. The nests were cast in bronze, a difficult process owing to their complexity and ephemeral nature. After casting, the nests often break, and I use a TIG welder to put them back together again but in a manner which is different from what they were when I found them. From this process, my respect for the birds’ expertise increased and nests no longer seem so humble…..
One spring, while gardening with my mother, she asked me to add flowers to two planters. Inside one was a nest with five robins, which I carefully put back. Inside the other planter was an empty nest. I placed that nest--the humblest of all structures--on an ornate marble pedestal in the center of my studio.
I began to collect abandoned nests in various states of disintegration and study them. The nest--a combination of earth, moss, twigs, leaves and other discarded materials--is formed of two parts: an inside symmetrical sphere, where the birds live and raise their children, and an outer asymmetrical sphere. The coexistence of perfection and imperfection. The nests were cast in bronze, a difficult process owing to their complexity and ephemeral nature. After casting, the nests often break, and I use a TIG welder to put them back together again but in a manner which is different from what they were when I found them. From this process, my respect for the birds’ expertise increased and nests no longer seem so humble…..