How does this artwork elucidate its Background?
The Birds was the first work of public art to be approved under the city's Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program. It was installed in Southeast False Creek Olympic Plaza, which served as the site of the 2010 Olympic Village, in April 2010. MacLeod was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film of the same name. She has said of the piece, "I think it boils down to wanting to make something sublime for the plaza – that is something beautiful, but frightening at the same time." She has also said of its inspiration:We have a very kind of romantic relationship to nature and I'm interested in playing with that romantic notion and kind of inverting it, sort of like how the birds attack in the film… And the scale of [the installation] has that similar effect, where our relationship to the birds has changed. Because normally when you're on the plaza, you see little birds and you're this giant thing. Here it's the opposite: You're the small thing in relationship to the giant birds.The Birds was also inspired by sustainability and the site's history as a shipyard, where sailors often wore sparrow tattoos. The sculptures have been called an "ode to immigration" based on MacLeod's interest in "alien species" and when non-native species are introduced to an environment (the house sparrow is not native to North America). MacLeod said: "My work for the Olympic Village tries to infuse the ordinary and commonplace sparrow with a touch of the ridiculous and the sublime. Locating this artwork in an urban plaza not only highlights what has become the 'natural' environment of the sparrow, it also reinforces the 'small' problem of introducing a foreign species and the subsequent havoc wreaked upon our ecosystems."The sculptures were produced by Heavy Industries, with some bodywork completed by Semi-Rigid Plastic Parts Repair. The Birds was the last of the public art program's works to be installed, despite being the first approved.
2010 Olympic Village house sparrow right Alfred Hitchcock 1963 film of the same name