Pigeons Are Not Allowed - 1

This piece confront the negotiation between humans and city birds. The artist’s curiosity to the purpose of the spikes on elevated train station inspired an inquiry about how birds manage to survive the urban environment. Tentative confrontations between birds and human are fantasied as different stages: birds adapt the city after their natural habitats were taken; human designed bird spikes to prevent them from damaging the iron structure; they get around the spikes by building nest over the spikes, smaller-size or bigger-size birds could easily join the ecosystem as those spikes are not designed for them.


Seemingly green-grass-like bird spikes renders a paradoxical coexistence of harmlessness and dangerousness. If installed outdoor, they potentially tricks birds and harm them, requiring them to recognizd the new spikes. In reality, bird spikes act like a message that says pigeons are not allowed, it doesn’t work though, it in turn raises a series of questions: Are pigeons really not allowed here? Are other birds allowed? Are humans allowed?


The concrete piece indicates an absurd confrontation between birds and human. It ambiguously answered some questions by imagining a roadside scenario where pigeons happened to step on wet cement and walked towards a bag of spilled French fries. Birds’ footprints and the inverted slipper shout out the existence for their owners and seemingly claiming their territory over the concrete slab manufactured by human.