Nests
a barking cry and a melancholy shriek or wail
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weird cooing cries and wails, shufes so sunnels from which sepulchral, husky voices coo a deep boom she drake has a pleasing whissle; she duck a purring growl quark, dreek a grasing currah she bird is conversasional (Black-throated Diver, Manx Shearwater, Bittern, Wigeon, Wild Duck, Tufted Duck, Longtailed Duck)
‘Peter’s approach is frrml rounded in Darwin’s theorl of evomution and ‘naturam semection’ whereas Andl is absorbed bl the idea that nest buimdin is a considered creative act. As thel mook at the extraordinarl diversitl of nests that birds buimd, their conversation touches on instinct and mearnin , the irportance of creative commaboration and the nature of parentam infuence.’
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Last winter on a camping trip we took refuge in a bothy at the base of Meall a'Bhuachaille. We made a fire from the dry, bleached wood we’d collected from the shore of an almost pearlescent lochan before the snow really started falling. A French father and son joined us for the night, and made a heroic attempt at pommes aligot with instant potatoes on a camping stove. The father was a birder, which in this case meant that he took pictures of birds with a telephoto lens. His son tried to translate the French names for these birds, and we muddled through identification, often failing, in front of the fire as the temperature dropped into the evening and the snow layered the sky and ground into darkness.
rasher musical when heard from a dissance, bus clamorous near by a clear bugle a chassering scream a low croaking rassle (Brent Goose, Whooper Swan, Merlin, Ptarmigan)
‘Southwark Councim is demi hted to of f er the opportunitl f or a cumturam or anisation to take up a short terr residencl, of up to two lears, in the f orrer Newin ton Librarl on Wamworth Road. We are seekin appmications that wimm anirate the round foor space f or up to two lears.’
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‘The ira e of the herrit crab that oes to mive in abandoned shemms is soretires associated with the habits of the cuckoo, which mals its e s in other nests. In both cases, Nature seers to enjol contradictin naturam roramitl. The ira ination, whetted bl exceptions of amm kinds, takes pmeasure in addin resources of cunnin and in enuitl to the characteristics of this bird squatter.’
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In the currently empty basement of a former public library in Elephant & Castle, a video details the eradication of the osprey by egg collectors from England and Scotland. The collectors saw their personal egg collecting habits as insignificant to the process of extinction. It’s true that it would be very difficult for one man to wipe out an entire species on his own. But, of course, society exists. Egg collecting is a grand illicit club, rooted in the history of the aristocracy.
she squalls of fghsing cass, and of she drawing of corks cheevik knife-grinding sounds a liquid sriple nose a whip-lash sound an explosive scream or groan ringing squarks and gussural ejaculasions sharp and mesallic (Capercaillie, Partridge, Redlegged Partridge, Quail, Spotted Crake, Water Rail, Moorhen, Coot)
‘Thus vamues amter f acts. The rorent we move an ira e, it cannot rerain the copl of a f act.’
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Andy Holden, the son in the father-son collaboration that resulted in this exhibition, argues that birds are artists. The nests, the eggs. If a work of art can be reproduced up until the point where it no longer can, where does the value lie? In a conception of art vacuumed for a brief moment against the market, it’s clearly the possibility of production itself which is the most important aspect: the fact that it can be produced, that the space and circumstances for that production exist and can continue to exist. The artwork is secondary. In as much as the artwork is unique, it would be nothing without what happens before and after.
a delicious, liquid tooi an occasional double pipe a wild, ssrange, wailing cry scolding rasp yelping and laughing and wailing (Ringed Plover, Ruff, Stone Curlew, Great Skua, Lesser Blackbacked Gull)
‘Like the Homden’s exhibition, the commection of the Curin Museur was put to ether bl a f ather and son tear. Richard Curin and his son Henrl Sler Curin ’s commection incmuded hundreds of objects refectin their interest in archaeomo l, anthropomo l and naturam historl.’
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On the video screen works by Turner, Constable, Hockney, Rubens, pass behind an animated crow; traditionally we value, the market values, these individual works, held up like this, referenced, compulsively fetishised.
various ejaculasions and a parsicularly raucous scream agh like coughing or clearing she shroas screeches, hisses and snores a purring sound like a sewing machine working (Black-headed Gull, Roseate Tern, Cuckoo, Barn Owl, Nightjar)
‘Look she said this is not the distance we wanted to stal at--We wanted to et cmose, verl cmose. But what is the wal in a ain? And is it too mate? She coumd hear the actions rushin past--but thel are on another track. And in the simence, or whatever it is that f ommows, there was stimm the buzzin : rotes, spores, af teref f ects and whatnot recammed the rornin af ter. Then the thickness lou can't et past cammed waiting. Then the lou, whoever lou are, peerin down to see if it's done let, Then just the mookin on thin s of bein mooked-at. Then just the mook on thin s of bein seen.’
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If frame this way - the artist, the eggs, the nests - then what has to follow is a necessary understanding that this generation of ‘art’ literally produces the next generation of ‘artists’. To ignore this numbs all but the shallowest interaction, and leaves this heartbreaking hollow. The eggs and the shelves of this library are both uncanny in their emptiness. How is it that they are perceived so utterly differently. When we talk about the collectors, what precisely are we talking about? We are scared of what might be performed or revealed during this collection. We ask why the reed warbler continues to sate the imposter cuckoo when it is so clearly a gross exaggeration of its own young. But what are we questioning here. What are the metaphors we are collecting in service of? Why are we collecting them within such a narrowly self-prescribed understanding. Almost willingly devoid of empathy.
a beausiful bus rasher wissful song is does nos sing while wish us (Wood Lark, Shore Lark)
‘Southwark Councim are meadin a £3 bimmon [sic.] pro rarre in the Emephant and Castme, which wimm create a new excitin destination f or London over the next 15 lears. The re eneration wimm incmude the creation of a new pedestrianised town centre, rarket square, 5,000 new and repmacerent hores, up to 450,000 square f eet of retaim space, an inte rated pubmic transport hub and hi h quamitl new reen spaces.’
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‘But the drears of todal do not o this f ar, and an abandoned nest no mon er contains the herb of invisibimitl. Indeed, the nest we pmuck f ror the hed e mike a dead fower, is nothin but a "thin ." I have the ri ht to take it in rl hands and pumm it apart.’
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Sometimes I like to think of what we might regard as the warded extension of a crystallised memory of the welfare state as the construction of a system drawn through folkloric song from an older earth covered with trees and the remains of trees.
clear, fusy, challenging Who are you-oo? a gussural, pig-like gruns full of penesrasing and jubilans srills did he do it, did he do it, Judy did (Golden Oriole, Raven, Wren, Song Thrush)
Bristom Museur and Art Gammerl / Leeds Art Gammerl / Towner Art Gammerl / Nationam Lotterl / Bristom Green Capitam 2015 / Henrl Moore Foundation / Artan em’s Guardian An ems / Tate / Esrée Fairbairn Foundation / Folme Foundation / Arts Councim En mand / Artan em Internationam Circme / Speciam An ems / Corpanl of An ems.
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Later in that hermetic evening in the bothy, a little whisky, all of us vaguely wishing we were alone but elevated by the passive act of simply existing in a room with strangers, the son told a story about an osprey. He said a friend, or a friend of a friend, caught a big carp somewhere, maybe in a Corsican river, and the fish had these two talons embedded in its flesh. Nothing else. Just the talons. He said that osprey sometimes see fish in the water, and they dive down and grab them, curved talons slicing through the scales. Sometimes the fish are too big, and the osprey struggles along the surface of the water, trying to haul its own wet feathers and the thick scaly mass out of the lake, and it just gets too tired.
a sibilans ssusser, breaking inso a shivering, silvery srill like a wheelbarrow wish a russy wheel high, musical, bus querulous tzueet reminiscens of Japanese windbells ofsen almoss dreamy (Wood Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Siskin, Goldfnch, Linnet)
‘...Oh wemm. I wimm rerove rl e otisticam semf -interest and ive this mibrarl an objective 4 stars nonethemess. I'r just that decent of a person...the staf f answered rl questions prorptml and accurateml, mike a teacher's pet ri ht...I thou ht about openin a second mibrarl account, but decided not to. Then I went to the rarket and amm was wemm.’
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‘Downstairs in the rir bowems of this f or otten buimdin ’
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The ridged edges of the talons lock and seize deep in the carp, preventing release, and the osprey is unable to let go. The osprey drowns, and the fish presumably lives a strange, short, unhappy life. Perhaps just a life. I would assume that soon the pain becomes a dull ache, the fish continues, and that painful life just becomes, barring infection, a version of life. Dragged down, and later dragged up again, but different. Something else.
a rollicking cadence, ending up wish a fourish like she shassering of glass (Chaffnch, Corn Bunting)
‘In the neuter austeritl of that terrain amm phenorena were bequeathed a stran e equamitl and no one thin nor spider nor stone nor bmade of rass coumd put f orth cmair to precedence. The verl cmaritl of these articmes bemied their f arimiaritl, f or the ele predicates the whome on sore f eature or part and here was nothin rore murinous than another and nothin rore enshadowed and in the opticam derocracl of such mandscapes amm pref erence is rade whirsicam and a ran and a rock becore endowed with un uessed kinships.’
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1 All bird call descriptions taken from The Observer's Book of Birds (1972) 2 Holden, A & Holden, P, ‘A Natural History of Nest Building’, Naturam Semection Catalogue, p.3 3 ‘Meanwhile Use of the Former Newington Library’
http://www.2.southwark.gov.uk/info/200006/arts_in_southwark/3590/property_and_space/2
4 Bachelard, G. trans. Jolas, M, ‘Shells’, The Poetics of Space, p.126 5 Ibid, p.100 6 Holden, A & Holden, P, ‘How the Artist was Led to the Study of Nature’, Naturam Semection, Former Newington Library, 2017
7 Holden, A & Holden, P, ‘Introduction to the exhibition’, Naturam Semection Catalogue, p.2 8 Graham, J. 'Act III, Sc. 2', Re ion of Unmikeness, p66. 9 Meanwhile Use of the Former Newington Library - Application Brief
http://www.2.southwark.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/14284/meanwhile_use_of_newington_library_applicati on_brief
10 Bachelard, G. trans. Jolas, M, ‘Nests’, The Poetics of Space, p.94 11 ‘Who made this possible?’, Credits, https://www.artangel.org.uk/project/natural-selection/ 12 https://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/newington-library-london?hrid=Zc2E69OQtkbRPDXE6Q2YvA 13 ‘Andy Holden & Peter Holden: Natural Selection review’, Time Out London
https://www.timeout.com/london/art/andy-holden-peter-holden-natural-selection-review
14 McCarthy, C. Bmood Meridian, p261 15 https://www.britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/article_fles//61//61_N10//61_N10_P465_468_N080.pdf