LandLab artist-in-residence Susan Hagen offers a series of diorama-inspired outdoor sculptures capturing historical moments in bird conservation, bird science, and humankind’s impact on bird populations. During her residency, Hagen interviewed birders and experts on ornithology and ecology and worked with the Schuylkill Center staff to develop a list of practical steps to improve outcomes for local birds.
Constructed from mixed media including reclaimed timber from the Schuylkill grounds, these small-scale sculptures allow visitors to intimately experience Hagen’s visual storytelling. Each of the eight sculptures explores the ethical challenges and opportunities facing humans and birds: where some focus on the heroic efforts of individuals to build a “Bird Ethic,” others show the absence of virtue, asking visitors to ponder the resulting effects.
Inspired by the writings of Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, and other visionary naturalists, the project calls on all people to develop a new set of ethics towards birds and to consider the broader implications for the entire natural world. As bird populations around the world have collapsed over the last few decades, humans face an existential threat. Our fates are tied together with the fates of the beings around us, and our collective survival depends on establishing a moral code that demonstrates responsibility for our position in an interconnected world.
Visitors can find Hagen’s sculptures installed along the Widener Trail, and can view her accompanying indoor exhibition in the Schuylkill Center’s gallery.
Tea Party with Harriet Hemenway (1896)
Harriet Hemenway hosts a tea party for her cousin, Minna B. Hall, and a friend. Here, she is pictured speaking to both women about the destruction of wading bird colonies at the hands of feather collectors. Together, they will begin a boycott of feathered hats which will lead to the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which outlawed feather hunting and interstate transport of birds.
Rachel Carson, Testifying Before Congress (1963)
Rachel Carson testifies before congress to communicate the danger of pesticides. Her 1963 testimony, based on her book, Silent Spring, led to the banning of pesticide DDT, to the subsequent recovery of bald eagle, osprey, and other raptor populations, then to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and the 1973 Endangered Species Act.
Bulldozer
A bulldozer clears the forest of logs which were once healthy, living trees. This sort of deforestation, which is often motivated by the development of residential buildings, businesses, and farming and logging industries, leads birds and other animals to lose their habitats. This is one of the biggest threats to nearly all species of birds.
Dr. Nate Rice, Scientist
Dr. Nate Rice, the Collection Manager of the Academy of Natural Science’s Ornithology Collection, holds a bird specimen collected through BirdSafe Philly. BirdSafe Philly works to gather and document specimens of birds who perished against residential or business windows. Since 1846, the Academy’s Ornithology Collection has documented both the rich variety of bird species and the destruction of this variety through population decline and extinction.
Sue Biniaz at COP 27 (2022)
Sue Biniaz, a climate activist, arrives at the 2022 Conference of the Parties (COP) 27. COP exists to generate international cooperation and negotiation of climate strategy; Sue Biniaz’s work supports steady progress towards climate justice and remediation for birds and all living creatures.
Collaborative Birders
On a birding expedition, people from three local birding groups – Philly Queer Birders, Feminist Bird Club Philly, and In Color Birding Club – look excitedly upward. In the past few years, there has been a huge growth in birding communities and an expansion in ways everyone can support bird documentation, including through Ebird, an online database. This citizen science supports the study of bird population loss and recovery and documents migration routes and preservation efforts.
Cats
An outdoor cat lies alert and ready to pounce on a nearby bird. Around the world, invasive species including cats have had a massive impact on bird population decline, particularly from the 18th century onward. Cats, rats, mice, insects, plants, and certain species of snakes and non-native birds have directly and indirectly caused population declines.
Birdhouses
These bird-supporting structures, modeled after ones found at the Schuylkill Center’s bird blind, offer shelter, food and water to passing birds. Birds need habitats filled with native plants and food sources.
Photography by Bastiaan Slabbers, 2023
About the Artist
Susan Hagen is a Philadelphia artist engaged in social and environmental issues. Her process as a sculptor is a unique hybrid of traditions, and she combines techniques of European wood carving with natural history illustration and methodology borrowed from the prosaic genres of miniature crime scenes, doll houses and historical dioramas. She discovered through the years that this process would allow her to translate her experiences of the world into a tactile, pocket-sized parallel universe. Currently, Hagen is focused on ecological risks to birds. Prior to The Bird Ethic, she completed “Birds of North America,” a series of miniature drawings of birds including two characteristic individuals of each species, a male and a female. This work can be viewed alongside The Bird Ethic in the Schuylkill Center’s indoor gallery.
Events
The Bird Ethic Opening Celebration: October 7th, 2023, 1-3:30pm. Register here
Programmatic Collaboration with Philly Queer Birders, November 18th, 2023. Stay tuned for details and registration.
Programmatic Collaboration with Feminist Birding Philly, December 9th, 2023. Stay tuned for details and registration.
