Bird Bath
2019 - 2020

project, microclimate on balcony and installation, solo exhibition Bird Bath, Lumen Travo Gallery

Works created during the project:
Three models for a bird bath; composed of baths, grass, bush, seeds, colours, viewpoints… visited by sparrows, great tits, blue tits, blackbirds, a single jay, magpies and starlings. Video and photo titled Foxtail Millet.

Bird Bath, exhibited by Lumen Travo Gallery, is based on a simple question, based on a desire to connect with birds.
What makes a bird's heart beat faster? How to study small birds in the urban environment?
Mariële Videler created a microclimate on her balcony, with a drip shower, seeds, colours, viewpoints. Three models for a Bird Bath were presented in the front room of Lumen Travo Gallery, alongside an object from the collection of the Amsterdam Museum: a historic scale model of an animal fountain. By the end of the 19th century the Sophia Society for the protection of Animals installed this cast iron fountain at 15 different locations in Amsterdam.


The work Foxtail Millet (see image below) is a translation of the 'duet between the birds and the artist'. A textile printed photo, almost three meters high, of Videler's torso, hanging upside down and completely covered with golden yellow millet.

Image above:
Bird Bath video, 2019 - 2020, mobile phone and video, duration: 2:27 MIN