“Birdhouse”

An Art Parody by Fatal Foxtrot

Inspired by “House” by Rachel Whiteread

Inspiration: Rachel Whiteread is a popular contemporary artist who gained recognition through her casting-type sculptures, that is, she fills houses and buildings with concrete and knocks down the walls. Her magnum opus, “House”, won her the Turner Prize in 1993, making her the first woman to ever receive the award. “House” stood for about a year before being demolished, but not before it mildly intrigued physical art fans everywhere. I decided that I could make something similar, albeit on a smaller scale and with much cheaper materials. And so, I did.

Process: “Birdhouse” was created in much the same way as “House” was. I began with an existing simple wooden birdhouse that I borrowed from my mother, and carefully removed the two roof pieces. Then, I proceeded to pack the birdhouse as tightly as I could with modeling clay leftover from the coil pot project. I started with the floor, making sure to get a flat “concrete” base that could support the other walls. Then, I repeated the same process on each of the four vertical walls, creating a sort of hollow shell of material inside the birdhouse. When the hollow was complete, I simply just packed and packed and packed that modeling clay into this wooden birdhouse until it was about ready to burst at the seams.
Once I was certain I could not get any more clay inside the birdhouse, I molded a couple more flat panels of clay onto the two roof tiles I removed earlier, and aggressively pressed them back into place, creating flat panels of clay for the roof. Then, I waited for it to dry just enough to separate slightly from the wooden frame…

Before finally using a rotary tool to cut the wooden shell in half and pop it off like a coconut. (Sorry, mom! I’ll get you a new one!)
After the functional wooden shell was released, I was left with this perfect greyscale cast of the inside. And of course, in the spirit of the original artist, I made sure that no birds could ever live in it.

Conclusion: “Birdhouse” is an artistic expression with about as much creativity in it as the original piece it was meant to be a parody of. Considering that being awarded the Turner Prize for “House” also earned her Knighthood in the Order of the British Empire, I contend that with “Birdhouse” I am equally qualified to be a knight. You may henceforth call me Sir Foxtrot.

“Birdhouse” is set to be demolished in 7 days.