Claudia
Matzko explores the ways in which people impose cultural
sensibilities on the natural world. In this work, a
young mynah bird is being taught to sing a phrase from
Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas. Dido is housed
in a comfortable aviary on the enclosed sun porch. Visitors
hear the bird sing the line, Remember me, remember me,
which she is learning from a recording of the opera.
The two levels of containment, the cage and the solarium
windows, contrast with the surrounding landscape. The
bird, taught in captivity to sing a human song, offers
a parallel to the composed and controlled garden.
Remember
Me, 2002
mynah bird, glass, steel
72" x 48" x 30"
Courtesy of the artist
