We ate the birds. We ate them. We wanted their songs to flow up through our throats and burst out of our mouths, and so we ate them. We wanted their feathers to bud from our flesh. We wanted their wings, we wanted to fly as they did, soar freely among the treetops and the clouds, and so we ate them. We speared them, we clubbed them, we tangled their feet in glue, we netted them, we spitted them, we threw them onto hot coals, and all for love, because we loved them. We wanted to be one with them. We wanted to hatch out of clean, smooth, beautiful eggs, as they did, back when we were young and agile and innocent of cause and effect, we did not want the mess of being born, and so we crammed the birds into our gullets, feathers and all, but it was no use, we couldn’t sing, not effortlessly as they do, we can’t fly, not without smoke and metal, and as for the eggs we don’t stand a chance. We’re mired in gravity, we’re earthbound. We’re ankle-deep in blood, and all because we ate the birds, we ate them a long time ago, when we still had the power to say no.
- Margaret Atwood, The Tent
We talked about the poem, discussed the lines with most impact. The majority found it dark and unpleasant, they felt for the birds. Working in small groups, they selected a line they wanted to illustrate using scrap materials.
I demonstrated ways of constructing shapes from plastic bottles, clingfilm, paper. We set up lights and filters on the table tops and investigated how these shapes created silhouettes and showed different levels of translucency. Questions about transparency and translucency came up and were answered easily by the group, informing each other.
The group were really engaged in making their objects from their selected line in the poem. A lot of trial and error in using the materials, some found paper easier than the plastic bottles. Some were really keen to work with colour and requested additional materials for their scene, coloured fabric and tissue paper.
Some of the groups were really clear about what they wanted to achieve, requesting to take pictures on the playing fields of the birds they witnessed everyday. I asked how they would incorporate these, they wanted to combine the real with the hand made. One group went and collected photographs of grass and sky to include in their scene.
In the afternoon, groups began to photograph their objects against light and oiled paper. Lots of make-shift hanging systems sprung up on the table tops to suspend plastic birds, people, clouds, spears and feet. String was tied between stools and lights re and re-arranged, great team work from the groups, lots of discussion and sharing of the camera.
I was really impressed by the delegation going on in the groups, each finding an element to concentrate on. I think a strength of the project itself, the poem is rich and offers variety of subject matter and levels of complexity. Some chose a poetic illustration, song notes flowing from the birds mouth. Others were more literal with birds being speared or roasted. Some identified themselves with the birds, pasting their face into the scene (using Photoshop), becoming the tormentor and tormented.
Working with an English teacher was really helpful and offered insight to how the literacy levels of the students could impact the quality of images produced. Not an issue I had given enough thought to before being in the classroom that day. For some students it was the first poem they had ever worked with. I think I will be considering what more I can do to support these students in the next sessions. More choice of material, some limitation on what they make and how, showing examples of previous work?
Students worked with artist Clare McEwan
