materializing new space

    walking around the exhibit one particular picture stood out to me. Picture number 17.  i thought it was beautiful in a slightly alarming way. from across the room you just see so much going on and it brings you in as you study all the detail of everything. you look at each individual bird and the mice and the mini war that seems to be going on between them. the mice and invading the home of these birds taking their eggs and killing some of them in the process. its tragic but at the same time compelling i want to see even more.
  the work its self is is a digital composite silver  gelatin print. it was created by Jaime Kennedy from a series called the down the garden, it is a combination of photography sculpture and digital imaging. these effects all work together drawing you in and showing you this completely fictional world that for a moment you can almost believe is real.
  in the picture you see the mice invading looking hostile and like they do not belong there. some of the mice are snarling and stealing the eggs. the mice take up most of the right side of the picture running into the nests on the ground and through the branches of nearby trees. the birds on the other hand and the left side of the picture look slightly more calm, which makes very little sense seeing as their homes are being invaded, i think this is due in large part to the large bird with the apparatus wings, who seems to be coming forth and protecting them. this bird is much larger than any of the others and with his created wings he gives off a sense of power.
  to me i think that the birds and mice represent the constant fight between good and evil, the apparatus bird representing differences that you can either learn to embrace or let them define you. the only thing i question is the butterfly in the picture. one lone butterfly flying between the bird and the mice. what does it represent? the calm before the storm? the beauty in every situation? im eager to hear what anyone else has to think on this piece.