The Birds Around Here.....

Hoyland Town Square, Barnsley 2004

This piece, designed and produced by Si Applied Ltd, responded to and expresses the thoughts, expectances and experiences of the local, ex mining, community as collected by a writer in residence.

"The birds around here were all in black and white. We had to go to the sea-side to see them in colour"

From a distance the birds appear as mere silhouettes. Close up, however, the intricate detail, in the form of images and quotations that are etched and patinated within the birds, creates a complex palette of colours and textures. The images, photo-etched onto the brass and steels birds, were developed from photographs taken by local school children using disposable cameras, that we had given them to photograph elements of their local environment that they found significant. In this way the tiny minutiae of their own individual views of their town made up the detail of the work.

Materials: Stainless Steel, Photo-etched and patinated stainless steel, brass, gold leaf, silver leaf, palladium leaf.