Pigeons 2013

Two Heads For The Pigeons 

2013. Polyer. Tallin, Estonia

There it was. A space filled with most of the materials I could ever need and a specific spot on the same space just waiting to be discovered.  All just left for the pigeons that inhabited the space in great numbers.  The altar like setting of the one standing wall on an elevated surface had triggered an ongoing fascination in me for religious and ritual practices around the world. While I’m not a religious man myself I certainly have an appreciation for all manners of human attempts to connect to our environment or to discern the nature of our existence. 

The theme of burial rites seemed more than appropriate for this dead building and the birds gave the final clue. There has been in use in several cultures in history the practice that has been dubbed sky burial. Most notably the Native Americans and some Buddhist lineages set their dead on high pedestals on elevated ground for the larger birds to feed.  All of this would presumably have had the notion of setting something back into the circulation of nature. So in the end, the idea became something simple as that.