“On a day like today, I was walking alone near the river. I came across a dead bird and decided to bury it. As I went to pick the bird up, it instantly turned to sand in my hands. I was struck with a sense of grief, as I did not want to move for fear that this bird would dissolve in my hands. So I sat for a very long time wondering what I should do. I finally decided to put it to rest in the river. The cold winter current swept it out of my hands in a matter of seconds. And like that, I was alone.”

The Process

I created a dead bird using clay. I then cast it out of plaster. I mixed water and sand that I brought back from the Ocean (basaltic sand) and cast a Sandbird. At first I just made these birds and watched them slowly turn into small featureless piles of sand. First the water would evaporate and then gravity would cause them to fall apart until there was not trace of there ever being a bird.

I began to feel a little depressed by this process as I just wanted to destroy it rather than having to watch it slowly disappear. I thought how interesting it was that when faced with something beautiful yet so ephemeral, all I could think to do was destroy it. At least this way, I could know I appreciated it to the extent that I was willing to free it rather than let it drag out to its ultimate disappearance. In doing so, I felt I was confronting this fear I have of ephemeral things (people, beauty, love...etc). And so I decided to take a few birds to the river with the intention of sending them back to their original location - the Pacific Ocean.