Vuelo perpetuo

In December 2015, a rainbow-colored Painted Bunting arrived in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, diverted from its usual migration to Florida, Mexico and the northern Caribbean, to overwinter in New York City, a place of extreme weather. Its arrival was a case of avian vagrancy.

This unnatural and rare sight was the starting point for my work “Vuelo Perpetuo”, a public art project launching a migration of tropical birds from Colombia to New York City in order to generate a conversation around climate change in the city. My birds were made of my drawings mounted on MDF cut-outs, which were hung in trees and fences around Brooklyn. They included the Yellow-Crowned Amazon, the Green-Bearded Helmetcrest, the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, the Emerald Toucanet, the Sparkling Violetear, and the Grey-breasted Mountain-Toucan.

These particular birds, in danger of extinction in Colombia, were selected with twofold intent. Firstly, to establish a conversation about the consequences of climate change in migrating species; and secondly, to speak about the biodiversity that exists in Colombia, which is under threat of destruction.

I made the first installations at the start of spring, working with the idea of new species arriving in the city with the new season. The birds appeared mostly in trees that have grown through the fences – despite the fences – where nature struggles to be nature. It was important that the birds decayed overtime to complete this ephemeral work; also to suggest the fate of these lost birds.