Public Art Registry
The Birds
Photo: Robert Keziere
The Birds
The Birds - photo by Robert Keziere
The Birds - photo by Robert Keziere
The Birds - photo by Robert Keziere
The Birds  - photo by Robert Keziere
1 Athletes Way
Milton Wong Plaza at Olympic Village
Civic
2010
Stainless steel, hardcoated EPS foam, bronze
Sculpture
In place
City of Vancouver
Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program - Legacy Sites
SEFC
Description of work

Vancouver artist Myfanwy MacLeod has always been interested in the ability of public art to convey political and historical meaning. The Birds, her artwork for Southeast False Creek Olympic Plaza, sits on the last large tract of available waterfront near downtown Vancouver and has been shaped by this new community’s focus on sustainability. The work attempts to highlight both the lighter and graver sides of what can happen when a non-native species is introduced to an environment, how the beauty of birds can sometimes mask their threat to biodiversity.

Artist statement
My work for the Olympic Village tries to infuse the ordinary and commonplace sparrow with a touch of the ridiculous and the sublime. The Birds is a pair of sparrows (male and a female) that, through their large scale– they stand 18 feet tall (5.5 metres) – inverts the normal relationship existing between these typically small birds and the human population. Locating this artwork in an urban plaza not only highlights what has become the ‘natural’ environment of the sparrow, it also reinforces the ‘small' problem of introducing a foreign species and the subsequent havoc wreaked upon our ecosystems…. The Birds reminds us of our past, but it aspires to challenge the future. It is my hope that the work stimulates understanding that will lead to a greater sense of shared responsibility and caring.
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