Birdnado2
Bird Tornado 2014, Public Art Project for Art on the Beltline, Atlanta, GA
The over population of homeless pets is a problem that plagues both the city of Atlanta and the entire Southeast. As an artist and an animal advocate, I wanted to create a project that would foster a deeper awareness of this issue in a way that was visually compelling and engaging as well as informative. In this installation, a 8 x 6 x 9 foot structure housed a 6 foot tornado created of hand-made paper birds. In 2013, Fulton County Animal Services (the largest county in the city of Atlanta) took in 9,225 animals. The tornado contained 365 birds, each bird representing 25 animals, which is the average daily shelter intake during a typical year. The housing structure featured a hand crank that was used to power the tornado’s rotation. My tornado symbolized a destructive force that could be overcome if more people got involved and helped to break the cycle.
I enlisted the help of professional carpenter and woodworker, Craig Appel, to aide with the construction of this piece and to make the interactive components.