Beatrix's Brief

Pigeons.: a wearable sculpture that takes inspiration from a Central Square mural by Felipe Ortiz, and explores the perceptions of nature and urbanity by using pigeons as a primary example. Pigeons. is made of feather “fans”, with an outside brick-colored feather to represent urbanity that pans out to reveal differently colored feathers with unique textures to represent the wonder, beauty and nature found when you look below the surface of the city. This project exists to change people’s views on the merging of nature and urbanity: every “front feather” is monotone and dull, but when someone looks closer by opening the fans, they will see the beautiful and different patterns. By training them to look closer to find real beauty, they will go out to the city and look closer at pigeons and urbanity to discover the beauty and nature behind it.

In this project, my partner and I chose two main patterns. The “front feathers” are all the same: brick-colored spray painted feathers. The other category, “unique feathers,” has four different patterns embedded in a wooden feather-shaped frame: lace, blue fabric, gold mesh, and mirrored acrylic, designed to reflect the color palette shown in the mural. Each front feather has two random unique feathers beneath it— for example, blue and lace, or gold and acrylic. They are attached with a screw that allows the feathers to fan out but keep their shape, and are connected to a felt harness worn on the thigh.