"For more than a decade, Rosen has sought out chattering macaws, cockatoos with fluffy, blush-colored plumage, and ornery owls, which she pairs with patterned papers and textiles. An African penguin, for example, stares curiously at its pink-and-white striped surroundings, while a Lady Amherst's pheasant trots across ornate brocade. The resulting portraits are meditations on notions of beauty and the relationship between nature and culture, particularly as we've reproduced imagery of the former throughout centuries of art and design."
"The walls of the imperial villas of Ancient Rome were adorned with frescoes detailing rich flora and fauna. During the Renaissance, Rafael reinvented this ancient style through his grotesques, which depict birds, fruits, and plant life. Carefully crafted representations of the natural world were re- imagined yet again in 19th-century Britain when William Morris began producing richly ornamented wallpaper featuring wild birds and vegetation."
An artist creates staged photographic portraits that pair exotic birds with patterned papers and textiles to blur the boundaries between nature and decorative culture. Subjects include chattering macaws, blush-colored cockatoos, ornery owls, an African penguin, and a Lady Amherst's pheasant placed against brocade and striped backdrops. The portraits reflect on notions of beauty and the historical reproduction of natural imagery in frescoes, Renaissance grotesques, and 19th-century wallpaper. Backdrop selection aims to induce beauty, optical illusion, and visual blending so birds appear to belong despite being far from their natural environments. A forthcoming book will collect portraits, essays, and scholarly texts; additional images appear online and on Instagram.
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