PLAIN AIR                                                                                                                                                                 1969

Dove Bradshaw                                                                                             

Originally not conceived as art, this work came into being in 1969. It began with a gift of a pair of Ring-necked Mourning doves and lead to the design of their environment. The doves were given free rein of my studio. A bicycle wheel was hung for a perch. The wheel spun whenever the birds landed and there they rested and slept. An adaptation of a Zen archer’s target was nailed to the floor below. I first saw it as a collaboration and then as a piece when the birds constructed a nest made from wire and string taken from the studio and hair from my brush. An egg was hatched in this nest. In spring when the chick was old enough, the birds flew away. The material trace of the work up till then, resides in 1969 bronze and silver casts of broken eggshells.

Twenty years later it had it's first gallery exhibtiion at Sandra Gering in New York. In 1990 it was presented at the Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh. As the gallery space was the museum’s ground floor, the size of the elements was increased to a 48-inch bicycle wheel, a 60-inch archer’s target and Roller pigeons. This breed was also selected because of its ornamental ability to tumble or roll in the air. In time two eggs were hatched. The chicks were learning to fly when they were returned to their breeder.The last Plain Air exhibition was mounted in 1991 at PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York. As the space was larger than any thus far, all the elements were doubled. One morning a week before closing, the windows were opened and after a few days the birds departed.

This was my first sound sculpture--most apparent during the PS1 exhibition. Daily, after eating and ritualistic preening, each of the birds flew to one corner of the room to a wooden room-support near the ceiling. There they began a cooing cycle that continued for several hours. Beginning with out-of-phase rounds, after three quarters of an hour, they gradually came into sync, winding their song into a hypnotic crescendo. A pause followed, then softly they would start again. This pattern repeated many times.