Orange Thrush

Paula McCartney, Orange Thrush, 2004, chromogenic print, image: 19 x 19 in. (48.3 x 48.3 cm) sheet: 24 x 20 in. (61.0 x 50.8 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2010.44.1A-B, © 2010, Paula McCartney

Artwork Details

Title: Orange Thrush
Artist: Paula McCartney
Date: 2004
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: image: 19 x 19 in. (48.3 x 48.3 cm) sheet: 24 x 20 in. (61.0 x 50.8 cm)
Copyright: © 2010, Paula McCartney
Credit Line: Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums Description: chromogenic print
Classifications: Photography
Photoprint
Subjects: Animal — bird — thrush
Landscape
Object Number: 2010.44.1A-B
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2010.44.1A-B

Artwork Description

Paula McCartney’s Bird Watching photographs playfully parody bird watchers’ desire to identify and inventory their avian finds. Although she does not consider herself a birder, McCartney collects field guides and uses them to help name her craft-store birds and provide believable attributions. Like the photographs themselves, the accompanying specimen labels are a combination of truth and fiction. They lend a sense of authority, albeit false, to the images and enhance the illusion. The labels also serve as a reminder that our experience and understanding of nature is mediated through a wide range of tools and cultural conventions, like field guides.

The Singing & the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art, 2014