From the Royal Academy of Arts, birds as a good thing:
John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) was born the year the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti) delivered their manifesto challenging official art rules promoted by the Academy. Waterhouse revived the literary and mythological inspiration of his predecessors, often staging, with crisp brushwork, dramatic confrontations of a single figure and a group. An active member of the Academy in the 1880s and 90s, Waterhouse nevertheless fell into oblivion in the early 20th century. Left, “St. Eulalia, 1885.” (Tate, London) The saint was martyred in Rome at age 12. According to Prudentius, a Christian poet who also lived in the 4th century, a white dove flew out of her mouth and snow suddenly fell at the moment of her death.
Late one night, Kader Attia’s friend had a fatal heart attack on the street in Paris. Attia found him where he fell, covered in pigeons. The man had been eating a sandwich. A couple of birds sat high on his chest, pecking his mouth to get the bread out.
Attia made his reputation with his response in 2005. Flying Rats featured seed-filled sacks shaped like children, plus 250 pigeons to eat them. More shots of the installation here and here.
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