Ozone

"The original Oil painting of this migrating goose was first painted as a standalone artwork. It was painted during a three-year period in which I focused solely on birds, their life, and behaviour. I focused on this subject for various reasons. I enjoyed the challenge of laying down a semblance of an animal so fleeting and quite tricky to render, but mainly, I was interested in the multitude of ways that birds are supreme carriers of meaning. They all stand for freedom; individually, they each have different associations. For example, a dove is associated with or stands for peace, an owl is seen as wise, an eagle is seen as majestic, powerful, etc. It was an attempt at using a system of associations, building it out further and thereby creating a type of language with which I could speak about everything. A type of pidgin language. 

The geese are renowned for endurance. Annually, they migrate across the globe, flying at heights that touch the Ozone, for weeks on end, finally reaching their destination, still alive, intact. I made colour copies of the painting, thereby building a flock of sorts. I paste them in a loose formation on a wall, then install oscillating fans to create movement, the fluttering pages mimicking flight.

This work also refers to artifice and our inability to match nature. Ultimately, these geese are a poor version of the real thing. Switch off the fans, and they instantly stop migrating. The fans look like a cheap trick when compared to the winds at high altitudes. The geese? Simply photostats held in formation with gaffer tape. 

Ozone refers to the layer above our stratosphere that protects us from the dangerous ultraviolet radiation of the sun."