Catriona Jeffries

The Contemporary Art Gallery has developed a new public art project with Vancouver-based artist Myfanwy MacLeod coinciding with this year’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act established between Canada and the US. The act, which is one of the most successful conservation laws in North American history, is now currently under review by American Congress. Coinciding with the anniversary of this major achievement in protecting species is the International Ornithological Congress (founded in 1884), which takes place every four years and in 2018 will convene in Vancouver from August 19–26. In addition to this is the re-installation of MacLeod’s acclaimed public piece, The Birds (2010) at Vancouver’s Olympic Village after the sculptures were removed for repairs in November 2017.

Neighbours is a series of twenty posters displayed at various transit shelters throughout the city of Vancouver and will occur alongside the International Ornithological Congress which takes place in the city from August 19–26, 2018. Incorporating drawn images of birds of different species gathered together into one flock as notional surrogates for the varied population of peoples that make up the city, this assemblage of birds will be made up of a diverse, polyglot group. Not unlike the “impossible bouquet”—a concept that emerged in Dutch still life painting in the 17th century, which was an artificial fantasy of flowers that could never bloom naturally in the same season and geographic region—the birds depicted at once mirror the cultural identities of the inhabitants of this city of Vancouver from different parts of the world while speaking to the democratic nature of the public transit system which brings together people from all walks of life.

Documentation by SITE Photography and Four Eyes Portraits.