Kobie Nel observed and recorded songbird vocals, fascinated by their instinctive, territorial and sexual vocal signalling to each other during the seasonal change.
Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.
To a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1820
Harmonious Madness is a sound piece extension from Nel’s living exhibition 'Apple Puma' in Bergen Kjøtt during spring, 2018. This was a living, staged installation that provided a temporary home to 28 canary songbirds whose true colour is dull, but whose ‘neutral’ colour is a shade of yellow achieved through dietary additives. This practice, in the parlance of avian breeding, is known as ‘colour feeding.’
Curated by Julie Lillelien Porter in response to the exhibitions Ruškkodit by Britta Marakatt-Labba, Hilde Hauan Johnsen, Kiyoshi Yamamoto and Marie Skeie and Garden by Sasha Pirogova & Marina Fridman at Kunsthall 3,14.