The Birds are Safe and so are You

(2020)

Exhibited at South London Story Lab 2020, Peckham Levels.

A giant pop-up library book-page replica of Carnegie Library in South London.

I was given Carnegie Library as a place in which to find a story to tell, the first time I visited I decided to be anonymous, to just listen and observe, fly-on-the-wall style. So, finding a purple arm chair hidden at the back, I sat and listened for an hour. I spent a long time here in awe of the quality of the light and also found myself becoming aware of the birds singing outside. They were constantly and confidently singing. I was reminded of something I had read a few days before, about how birds sing when they feel safe. Tuning into the sound when you are feeling anxious can be helpful…i.e. if they are safe, then you must be safe too. This lead me to my story.

Carnegie Library had suffered from government cuts, which was very clear. But if my story was going to be about that, it would be to promote it, to make people want to use it, as apposed to creating something angry. …the idea that the birds still thought of it as a safe place, even through its cuts, closure and threat, was a perfect way to ‘promote’ the library. How beautiful, to be able to go and sit in a warm and dry, safe environment, surrounded by light and birds singing and books that you can read for free! That would be my story. The birds are safe and so are you.

My story was told in the form of a giant pop-up book page depicting an abundance of birds flying, nesting and existing within the library. I wanted to create a personal and immersive experience, showing the joy and wonder of what can be found in the library… there is no greater wonder than opening a page from a pop-up book! In order to achieve this sense of wonder, I invited people to open the book up for themselves, so that they were totally unaware of what lay inside. They were able to come and sit down, put on a pair of headphones (playing audio that I had mixed using bird sounds real bird sounds that I had recorded outside the library and the song 'Free as a Bird' by Soom T) open the book and feel safe for a moment.

Below: initial draft ideas, sketches of the birds I saw (and later identified), final illustrations of said birds that were made much smaller and included within the piece, a look-through the notes in my log book that I kept throughout the process, and the invitations I sent to Carnegie Library, inviting them to view the piece at South London Story Lab 2020.