Analyzed Songbird (Gases), 2009

Glass, cork, sealing wax, wood, and mixed media

12” x 15” x 6” (30 cm x 38 cm x 15 cm)

As a child I once opened a random book in my local library by chance to a page where the cost of a songbird was calculated. The author considered how much of each chemical element the bird was comprised of and added the costs if it were to be purchased in a chemical supply store. The overall price of the bird came out to be a few pennies. I am not sure why the author performed this macabre calculation but it stuck in my head. This piece illustrates the same idea, a small bird separated into its chemical elements and displayed as an old-fashioned chemistry set, as a critique of pure reductionism, giving another meaning to the concept of ‘analysis.’