Artist captures plight of birds in poignant 'I Am One of Those Animals'
In her beautiful and heartbreaking sculpture exhibit, “I Am One of Those Animals,” Columbus artist Carmen Ostermann captures the magnificence of birds as well as the peril to their existence.
Handsomely installed at the Priscilla R. Tyson Cultural Arts Center, the selection of ceramic and fiber sculptures calls attention to the first biotic crisis caused not by a natural event but an animal. In her exhibit title, the artist is acknowledging the responsibility of the human animal.
Since the 1970s, Ostermann writes in her artist statement, the bird population has decreased by 3 billion, or approximately a third of all birds. “They simply cannot survive the swift alteration humans are inflicting upon their environments.”
Ostermann illustrates the crisis in elegant alabaster-colored sculptures of a spoon-billed sandpiper, piping plover, whooping crane, Gunnison sage-grouse and more, all encrusted with barnacle-like nodules encroaching on their bodies – a reference to the ecological succession after a species goes away.
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In the hanging wall installation “Trumpeter Swan,” the porcelain bird is placed against a turquoise field, with strands of the fabric wrapped around its neck.
A tiny sculpture of a hummingbird and its empty nest sits atop a metal pole, contrasting the size of the little bird with that of a human walking around it. “Anthropocene Extinction” places hundreds of empty porcelain nests in a horizontal line on a gallery wall, a timeline of infertility.
In a series of ink and vellum drawings, Ostermann captures robins, sparrows, nightingales and other birds in flight, with shadow drawings behind them creating the sensation of movement.
She presents only one extinct species in this exhibit, paying tribute with “Martha Passenger Pigeon” to what was once the most prolific bird on earth. The last passenger pigeon died in 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Using fiber, thread and wood, she has created rounded framed works that resemble embroidery hoops with the fabric fields bearing microbe images of animals, plants and organisms – seeming to call attention to the building blocks of life.
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The soundtrack to Ostermann’s exhibit is a tape of music, poetry and birdsongs from The Birdsong Project, supported by the National Audubon Society.
According to arts administrator, Geoff Martin, the Cultural Arts Center increasingly has received proposals from artists whose work shows concern for the destruction of the natural environment, the artists’ way, he said, “of calling attention to this very real problem.”
In one of her works, Ostermann is about as blunt as you can get. Her “Canary in the Coal Mine” presents a porcelain bird trapped in a wooden cage.
At a glance
“I Am One of Those Animals” continues through March 4 at the Priscilla R. Tyson Cultural Arts Center, 139 W. Main St. Hours: 1 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 10 p.m. Mondays; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Call 614-645-7047 or visit culturalartscenteronline.org.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Artist Carmen Ostermann shows impact of humans on birds in sculptures
