A fortnight ago, I was on day trip to Shetland for work. It's fair to say that my 'office' is wherever I happen to be at the time, such is the galloping ubiquity of modern communications. As the ferry sailed into Lerwick at 7am, I was on the correct side of the boat to snaffle some 4G signal.
Between two appointments, I had a little free time and was led into temptation by the thought of a British rarity. Within 10 minutes of my planned route, was a small wooded community garden which had, earlier in the week, been the site of a sighting of a Tengmalm's Owl. Where's the harm, I thought, somewhat sheepishly.
And indeed, there wasn't any harm, or any owls for that matter, but I did find a potential spot to look for dragonflies later in the year, as well as a few flowering trees and shrubs.
Later, with the day's tasks completed, I returned to Lerwick to catch up on some more office work...
and noticed an advertisement for an exhibition which looked rather interesting. With half an hour to fritter away before check-in opened for the return journey to Orkney, I nipped across town to visit 'Natural Selection' by father and son team, Peter and Andy Holden.
There were eggs, nests, bird-related artworks and a representation of a bird-made artwork. Yes, really!
And this...
a bit larger than life, but an impressive construction, nevertheless. Male Bower birds construct bowers to woo females, decorating the structure with coloured objects, in very specific and individual ways. The nest is elsewhere, this is pure bird-art.
4 comments:
I would have loved that exhibition! An eggcelent way to fill an hour. Orkney, I love Orkney.
I should've put a link in the blogpost:
https://www.artangel.org.uk/project/natural-selection/
That's an interesting way to while away the time before boarding. Looks really interesting. However, I'm rather disappointed you failed to make me envious! 😂
JD, what I didn't show (although I did photograph) was the huge collection of birds' eggs on display, which was the recovered haul of an egg thief. It was rather tragic to see so many boxes and tins spread out across the floor, containing a vast number of eggs from all manner of species. It was simultaneously horrifying and beautiful, eliciting a range of emotions (shock, anger, sadness) at the pointlessness of the crime, yet each individual egg was a small work of art in its own right (or would have been, if left in its nest to fulfil its destiny).
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