This is my body which shall be given up for the birds
A rather unusual self-portrait:
A statue of a woman made out of bread is proving popular with pigeons in a park in Santiago.
That must be disturbing to watch... a flock of pigeons descending upon and consuming a woman in effigy.
Even so, I can't help but like it; in my opinion, it's a very clever integration of media and environment. Here, the artist has taken advantage of existing dynamics of interaction to create something that, though inert, interacts with life around it.
It is interesting on several levels; and though it touches on two old metaphors/cliches (bread as flesh, birds as spirit) it's not overwhelmed by them. This idea of transubstantiation is self-referential here in a nifty sort of way; art ought to strive to effect a sort of transubstantiation, a transcendance of both its own substance and that of the viewer.
And somehow, there's something very humanizing about making it out of something as vulnerable as bread; it brings to my mind creation myths, and stories like Pygmalion & Pinnochio. And it reminds me I have a short shelf life. :)
Unfortunately, thanks to this artwork, the song I now have stuck in my head is Tom Lehrer's Poisoning Pigeons in the Park. Also the Monty Python sketch, 'Eere, pidgy pidgy pidgy *thunk*.
Y'know, now that I think about it, a flock of pigeons descending upon and consuming a woman in effigy is pretty darn Pythonesque...