THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 13, 1994 TAG: 9406110028
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By PATRICK K. LACKEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940613 LENGTH: Medium
How a wren could turn down a birdhouse patterned after the Greek temple Erechtheum on the Acropolis in Athens is a mystery. The birdhouse is named ``The Awrentheum,'' as in (drum roll, cymbal crash) ``aWRENtheum.''
{REST} That birdhouse is one of 13 displayed outside the Peninsula Fine Arts Center here.
The exhibit, to run through July 10, is titled ``Nesting Instincts.'' It consists of art for birds' sake, by nine Virginia artists and one artist from New York. A number of birdhouse entries were rejected.
One can understand why bird parents might choose not to raise a family in the birdhouse titled ``Up for Breakfast.'' That one has a fried egg painted on the entrance in a visual pun on the question, which came first, the bird or the egg?
But how can birds resist ``Industrial Birdhouse,'' a large modernistic home with a birdbath on top? That birdhouse was designed by architect Ed Pease, who, as chance would have it, designed the newest (drum roll, cymbal crash) WING at the arts center.
The birdhouses are displayed on tall poles, beyond reach of cats and squirrels, but the objets d'art compete with the thick surrounding woods for tenants. The exhibit went up in mid-May, after most birds had nested.
Compared with human houses in Hampton Roads, the birdhouses are splendiferously vivid and varied. (So are birds, compared with people.)
The birdhouse titled ``Sky Spirit'' is as colorful as a stained glass window. The artist, Lynne Sward, wrote, ```Sky Spirit' evolved from concepts I had about Native American teepees, ski chalets, and log cabins.'' The materials she used include vinyl tubing, beads and yellow feathers. ``The beads and feathers,'' she wrote, ``serve as magical healing and love charms.''
Sward expressed the wish, ``After visiting `Sky Spirit,' may these winged wonders forever soar, close to the heavens - not far from our hearts.''
Most of the birdhouses are for sale, and at $90, ``Sky Spirit'' is the least expensive. Most expensive is ``Industrial Birdhouse,'' priced at $475 with birdbath.
Deborah McLeod, the Peninsula Fine Arts Center curator who set up the exhibit wrote: ``NESTING INSTINCTS is a collaborative installation between artist and bird. The birdhouses in the show are each artist's interpretation of the inclination we have to provide for nature that which we need for ourselves.
``On an even deeper subconscious level, this longstanding garden tradition probably touches on our realization that no situation that we might improvise comes with a condition of permanence. Here, in our charming birdhouse in our beautiful garden, we accept, even enjoy, the terms of time.''
by CNB