BIRDS AND BORDERS, Birds & Borders project
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Birds and Borders is an
ongoing project of Ever Arts and Rod Summers. Mailartists
and others, interested in birds, received and will
receive B & B reports by the B & B team from
Holland.
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THE MAILART PROJECT 1992
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Over 200 mailartists
participated in the Birds and Borders mailart project in
1992. All participants received an illustrated catalogue
and those who participated in sending a cassette received
an audio-collage. The exhibition took place 21th November
until 12th of December 1992 in de Bewaerschole in
Haamstede Holland. On the occasion of the opening of the
exhibition an excursion was made to the vanished village
of Koudekerke and those present at the exhibition were
witness to the performance "Response and
Responsability" by Rod.
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OIL AND BIRDS DON'T MIX,
(fragment of a
text from the catalogue by Ever Arts)
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From 1974 until 1984 I
spent most of my freetime bird-watching. In 1984 I became
involved in the mail-art network. I was glad to be able
to mix my bird-watching with mail-art activities when Rod
and I decided to do a project on birds. As a birdwatcher
I was often confronted with oil pollution. Once there was
advantage in that: the opportunity for closer observation
of unusual or rare birds. The first Velvet Scoter I found
on the beach of Goeree-Overflakkee stayed in my house for
about three weeks. I looked after the bird, went out
fishing for little fish and crabs for it, but the duck
died anyway, it was then I realised that oil companies
were hard to fight against. All kinds of nature
protection societies do their utmost to focus attention
on the problem and with the B.& B project we also try
to do something about bird protection. As a matter of
fact we were inspired to our project by the images of oil
covered Cormorants during the war in the Gulf. Birds and
Borders the whole day long on CNN television to show the
world what it already knew: |
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Ko de Jonge
(Middelburg) |
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Grateful thanks to Pierre
Jean Vetter ( Mona Lisa Foundation) for generously
sponsoring the documentation and thanks to all the
participants in the show for sending their brilliant
works and sharing our concern for birds. |
BIRDS AND BORDERS REPORT, February 1994
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In 1992 we organised the
project Birds and Borders which culminated in an
exhibition of creative works which had been sent to us by
over 200 mail-artists and audio-artists. Our invitation
to participate in the project did not explain our
intentions. The idea for the project was born of our
common interest in birds and bird watching. Most of the
contributors chose the theme of bird-protection, only the
minority related their works to borderincidents between
states and countries.
As a symbol and ideograph
for the Birds & Borders project we chose the Manx
Shearwater (puffinus puffinus). The Shearwater's
different sub-species breed in Europe, America, Australia
and Africa, it nests in the earth. When it is
not-breeding the bird lives at sea all around the globe.
It is an omnipresent species.
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After the exhibition in 1992 in Haamstede ( Holland) we
produced a catalogue in which we wrote about the fact
that oil companies are hard to fight against and
expressed our strong desire that an end to oil pollution
be rapidly and universally achieved. |
"OIL AND BIRDS DON'T
MIX"
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We are aware that this
fight is most difficult but at the same time we think
that bird protection societies ( and other wildlife
institutions) could fight harder. Yes, we believe in
education, but now the time to act has come. Our
Shearwater stands for universial freedom and right to
having a place for oneself wherever on earth that might
be. The inane continuous pollution must cease.
The shearwater soars in
search of reason.
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