Birdcage follows a series of bird installations that Jane Watt has been working on over the past year. She has used plastic birds – which are manufactured as garden ornaments that have small propellers as wings – to create different flocks and migrations across Europe. The birds have been shown at a number of venues in London as well as on the terrace in the Damasquine Gallery, Brussels and at the Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth.
Birdcage will contain a flock of approximately 200 plastic birdswithin a tall cage-like structure placed on the Plaza. The birds will appear to float silently on virtually invisible threads until a gust of wind blows them into action. As their wings rotate they appear to fly, but their journey is inhibited as they are caught within a labyrinth of line. Watt creates site-specific installations in a variety of domestic, urban and gallery settings.
She manipulates large amounts of often mundane materials – light bulbs, beads, fishing line and mirrors – to create illusions of light, movement or mass which appear to defy gravity or logic. The work alters as the viewer moves around the space or if viewed at different times of the day.
Watt, lives and works in London and graduated from the MFA Drawing and Painting course at Edinburgh College of Art in 1995. She is currently concluding PhD research at Manchester Metropolitan University on the role of artists in public art in Britain.
Jane Watt is represented by Dominic Berning tel: 020 7739 4222. This project has been made possible with the generous support of Artline and Kee Systems. www.keesystems.com