Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Cheep and Cheerful: Maya Paris' NightBirds

Fresh from the triumph of her bird-up-chimney chairs at IMPOCA, Maya Paris has a new exhibit on the lawn in front of the Omega Art Space and it opens today.
Set your world view to midnight and experience NightBirds, another interactive funscape, complete with beak, wings, eggs, animations, and sounds. Get a bird's eye view of Maya's spiky shiny imagination by roosting in the nests and embracing your inner egg - or beat a clutch of them and discover your own tune in the combination of their birdsongs, some supplied by Maya herself, others by folk singer and ornithological whistler, Man of Kent Nigel Hobbins. (Click and follow the links! He is hot and his new CD 'Out Of His Tree' sounds great... the accent is to die for!)
Maya Paris: Nigel is a friend of mine, and he provided the song of the yellowhammer and the chiffchaff, which is the first migrant bird we hear in the spring here in England. If you sit on an egg I can make you hop.
I like hopping. The nestiness was great fun, and all the eggs reminded me a little bit of Maya's Burning Life kitchen.
Maya Paris: Yes, eggy eggy. Try running around now and look at the grass behind you.
Lots of delicate white circles followed my footsteps and, being a dope, at first I mistook their meaning.
Maya Paris: I was thinking daisies...but if laying eggs works for you:)
Thirza Ember: For a moment there I thought you had invented the fried egg layer.
Maya Paris: It's pretty if you just spin.
It was.
Maya Paris: You can hear your egg?
Thirza Ember: Oh yes, it's whistling.
Maya Paris: Haha! Now click the eggs, and play me a birdsong tune! Oh there are two kinds of wings, feathery and pointy, and they have a flight assist, so if you ever need to fly really high, they will take you.
Thirza Ember: That is wonderful. I have a lot of wing envy.
Maya Paris: I can't wait to hear what this sounds like with a lot of people, I'm hoping it will sound like a flock of birds all chattering.
Just like your average vernissage, then, I thought.
Be at Omega tonight, there are lots of goodies in the globe, I liked Treacle Darlandes' 'The Storm' which is the pyramid installation in the foreground here.
And since we're on the subject of bluetits and loons, don't miss dear Gleman Jun's award-winning (oh my how he loves when I say that) 'Flame of creativity' and other artful and humourous pieces on Omega's top shelf.
Must fly.

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