I was fascinated by feathers in the landscape because I wondered what happens to them if no one picks them up. My fascination with abandoned objects in the urban landscape led me to stray umbrellas. I began to collect them. Stray umbrellas, listening to the wind instead of to humans.
I brought the feathers together with those stray umbrellas. I reconstructed the stray umbrella by placing peacock feathers instead of the missing ribs. That way, they became one again. Peacock feathers were associated in my mind with my grandfather who passed away this year. I told him before he died that I was working on this. He said I always wanted to have those feathers. Maybe it was because of those eyes. I had always been interested in seeing better. For the project, I didn’t want to use the eyes of the feathers, so I cut them off and gave them as gifts to beautiful people here and there.
The movement of opening and closing an umbrella is just like a bird opening and closing its wings. From this idea that blown away umbrellas are actually birds, I began creating a universe consisting of feathers and blown away umbrellas.
This umbrella is suspended by hanging the handle over a steel cable. Sometimes, the feathers move due to movement on the wire, making it seem like a living organism.
The suggestion to reuse and transform blown-away umbrellas into new objects fits within this broader framework. The idea of umbrellas being catched and transformed by nature raises questions about sustainability and the relationship between human creations and the natural environment. Umbrellas, originally intended to protect us from these elements, are reinterpreted as part of a larger ecological narrative.
The concept of stray umbrellas speaks to the power of nature and the ability of objects to be transformed by their surroundings. It challenges us to consider our relationship with materials and our impact on the environment.
This transformation from functional object to lost object raises questions about the finiteness of human creations and the transience of our existence. By connecting the umbrellas with feathers, symbols of lightness and freedom, a story is also told about flying after death, making the artwork a meditation on impermanence, transcendence, and the cycle of life and death.
Justine Cappelle 