Finches rock out with Gibsons

There was a very cool art installment last week, over here in Hobart, at the Long Gallery in Salamanca Place. I've been doing a few days in the design department again at work, and the head of design told us to check out the birds playing guitars... say again? like sculptures, or paintings? No no, real live birds on guitars!

So during the lunch break I went to have a look, and I was not disappointed. It is done by a French artist, Celeste Bousier-Mougenot, and has to be one the most unique and original things to see. You walk through two doorways of chain curtains into a medium sized room, where in the centre is a large, curvey, garden bed of pebbles complete with small grass tussocks. Spread around the garden are five shiny Gibson guitars on stands, hooked up to amplifyers, and after awhile you realise with delight, these little finches freely flying and landing around the space. 35 finches to be exact.

As they land and hop about on the guitar strings, they "play" the guitars, the sound and music choreographed to their movements, amplified to speakers, also set about in the garden. There were extra perching space for the birds, should they get tired of standing on guitar strings, with a few microphone stands, and also water and birdseed filled in guitar cases on the pebble garden floor. The whole experience was both novel and cute. And dont' worry, the whole thing was RSPCA okay'd and personally, I think the finches looked quite unbothered. (although I hope the recapturing and transporting was not too stressful for them).

I went back again on the saturday to take photos, but because of the low light and finches being super active birds, these are the clearest the shots got without a tripod.