Kate MccGwire is a British sculptor with an unusual medium: feathers. Her surreal, undulating works often take the form of installationsâthe feathers spilling out of a drain, a stove, a crypt wallâor stand-alone sculptures in which antique bell jars, cabinets, or trunks contain otherworldly shapes.
MccGwire developed her obsession with feathers after moving to a studio barge on the Thames in 2006, as she explains in a video from Crane.tv recently spotlighted by Boing Boing. The barge was near a large shed full of feral pigeons, whose feathers she would spot on her way to work. "I started picking them up and laying them out, collecting them," she remembers. "And after about two weeks I had like 300 feathers." At the time, concerns about bird flu were rife, which made the feathers seem "dangerous as well as beautiful."
When not supplied by her own next-door menagerie, the feathers for her artwork come from a network of racing pigeon societies all over the UK, who send her envelopes full every time the birds molt. Farmers and gamekeepers also send her fallen feathers from birds such as magpies, pheasants, and roosters.
The cultural associations around birds are a big part of what inspires MccGwire. âThe dove is the symbol of peace, purity, and fertility," she told ArtNews in 2013, "but itâs exactly the same species as a pigeonâwhich everyone regards as being dirty, foul, a pest.â
The same duality is present in her own work, which she frequently shares on her Instagram account. âI want to seduce by what I doâbut revolt in equal measure. Itâs really important to me that youâve got that rejection of things you think you know for sure.â
You can see some pictures of MccGwire's work, and watch the video from Crane.tv, below.
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