The photocopy of feathers is from one of my old sketchbooks and shows black feathers (male) and pale feathers (female) from a type of chicken. When oestrogen is applied as the feathers are growing they are, apparently, ‘feminized’. This is the first time I’ve actually read the caption. I just love the image. And it reminds me of placing daffodils in writing ink and food colouring and watching them gradually turn blue or red. Does this still go on in primary schools?
My collection of feather images is increasing. No longer pressed under glass, red tinged, but becoming airborne, suspended. It’s a welcome distraction from the idea of ‘preservation’ which seems a vast subject. Some thoughts around it include methods – salt, wax, sugar. Words and phrases – cherish, keep, conserve, memento. ‘Repositaries of touch and care’. ‘Appropriation’ of artefacts. Anne Sexton’s poem ‘Snow White’ – “she is unsoiled. She is as white as a bonefish”. And random images below. This is the way I prefer to work at the moment. Pieces of the jigsaw.
photocopy image (sketchbook)
Lesley Bricknell feather image (2009)
Postcard (feather cape) no date
