⤣ SERIESRuffled: Keel-Billed Toucan
This is part of a larger artwork. See the full artwork series:
Ramphastos sulfuratus
The Keel-Billed Toucan is also sometimes called the Rainbow-Billed Toucan because of its rainbow coloured beak. This beak can grow to nearly 20cm long making it one third the length of the bird itself. Their way of conserving space whilst they sleep is to tuck their beaks under their bodies.
The Collection
Images
Information
Year:
2014
Edition:
Edition of 8 + 2 Artist Proofs + 2 Museum Proofs
Materials:
Code, software, display screen, electronics, sensor, aluminium, acrylic
Details:
Dimensions in MM:
Large:
446 (W) x 518 (H) x 72 (D) mm
Dimensions in INCHES:
Large:
17.5 (W) x 20.3 (H) x 2.8 (D) inches
Context
"In Patrick Süskind’s novel, Perfume: the Story of a Murderer (1985), the anti-hero character Jean-Baptiste Grenouille uses a method known as enfleurage to extract and distil scents. Although he manages to capture a victim’s life essence in a glass bottle, it causes the captee’s demise in the process.
Harris portrays the life of a series of birds in Ruffled (2014, 2017) using code to display their essence behind the glass of high-resolution screens. Unlike Grenouille’s scents that will fade over time, however, these animations live on, ready to reactivate with each repeated viewing. One gets the sense that it will be only a short time before Harris figures out how to free these creatures from their transparent cages."
Extract from essay by Sunny Cheung
