Kathy Mctavish

Origin of Birds Kathy Mctavish

According to an ancient Greek story, the god Chaos was the first to emerge at the creation of the universe. Soon after her came Gaia (Earth), Tartaros (the Underworld) and Eros (Love). In many versions, Chaos then gave birth to the Birds. From the primordial depths of time, from Chaos herself came these winged first beings. This wild birthing created migrations and flight. In more recent times, soon after Darwin published his book, "On the Origin of the Species", scientists began a heated debate about the origin of birds. Most scientists today believe that birds are one of the few remaining descendants of the dinosaurs. In our own brief Anthropocene era, we are witnessing a rapid increase in the rate of extinction. We are in a geologic epoch marked indelibly by a human-created, asteroid-scale period of rapid loss of life as we know it on the planet. This planetary devastation is moving very quickly now. Soon birds quite possibly will be swallowed back into some primordial chaos. Or perhaps these small winged dinosaurs will survive another wave of extinction - another geologic era and we will be the ones whose wax wings burn. I created a film generator called the graffiti angel to express a stuttering before god - an infinite resistance / a relentless howl or noisy elegy - a way to respond, to witness. The "origin of birds" exhibit first appeared at the Prøve Gallery in Duluth, MN in 2014. The physical installation has a companion interactive web site (originofbirds.blueboatfilms.com). The origin of birds mixes image, sound, data, text and a live twitter stream to create a video collage / a multi-sensory torrent. The physical installation includes multiple projections, live performance, and QR code "portals" into the interactive web environment. I am hoping to create a story "swarm" - an immersive river. The online website allows you to drill-down into individual text, image and sound pieces of the larger work - an immersive dive into the wreck - grief and ecstasy, a queer flame, a sanctified rejoicing amidst the rubble of it all.