Birdbrain @ 85 George Street, The Rocks Sydney, November, 2011

“Birdbrain” is an exhibition of multi-disciplinary artworks including images, impromptu performance, video and sound created, and in the process of creation, by Julie Shea and Leanne Berelowitz in collaboration as RaG RAG.

With experimental art processes that challenge the norm, the works incidentally destabilize, disturb and shift perceptions from the quotidian.

During the period of 11.11.11 and the full moon, RaG RAG will send tendrils probing liminal spaces, then reconstruct and metamorphose the found treasures and insights into mercurial manifestations which stimulate introspection/extrospection to take flight in an ontological chase.

Julie and Leanne are both current students of the Master of Cross Disciplinary Art & Design COFA Online course, and are both practicing artists and art tutors.

Randomly created investigations for a project at Birdbrain for Julie’s “Talk to Me Birdies” with the question “What do you have to say to the Running Dog?”

Talk to me birdies….

I placed a computer keyboard on the windowsill of the gallery and put some birdseed on it, then waited for the birds to arrive and type me a message.

Only one letter was recorded -

“r”

From Wikipedia……

Dog's letter

The letter R is sometimes referred to as the littera canina (canine letter). This phrase has Latin origins: the Latin R was trilled to sound like a growling dog. A good example of a trilling R is the Spanish word for dog, perro.

In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, such a reference is made by Juliet's nurse in Act 2, scene 4, when she calls the letter R "the dog's name." The reference is also found in Ben Jonson's English Grammar.

Here is the letter that was then written to place on the mantlepiece of the installation for the video Dog Pour.

The Dog’s Letter -

Dear Anyone,

Trapped by my own reflection in the teapot of life……can’t help myself but to chase the spinning rubber……unless my tooth catches the wheel - then my skin will adorn your shoulders or your floor.

Yours,

R.

The letter was placed on the mantlepiece above the video of the Dog Pour Series and next to the reflective teapot.

Later, I asked all the visitors at the closing event to say words beginning with “r” or which contained strong “r” sounds. These were spoken into the reflection of the shiny teapot and videoed. The recordings were edited and played with the soundtrack of Jewish celebratory song "L'chaim" which means “To Life!” in Hebrew.

The link to this video is on my previous website at the waving flags gif on the satellite dish. The link to the dog pour series of videos is also on this website at the running dog gif.