When entering the first exhibit space at Miami Beach’s Bass Museum, one sees what appear to be two miniature tree houses precariously balanced on single branches that seem to hold the structures against the ceiling.  They are actually birdhouses made by British artist Simon Starling (b. 1967), which is made apparent by the tweets of songbirds permeating the space, and entitled Inverted Retrograde Theme, USA (House for a Songbird).  The work will be on display until the 13^th of September.

     From what I understand, the houses are inverted models representing a couple of structures built by an Austrian architect for public housing in Puerto Rico.  The original houses in Puerto Rico were built having the Utopian ideals of being without enclosable windows and doors, with the reason that not having them would help to cool the structures and keep their construction costs low.  The irony and what is inherently retrograde about the work is the fact that those same structures had to be modified by their residents to enclose their open doors and windows with wrought iron screens as a way to deal with the more dystopian crime levels pervading Puerto Rico in the 70s.  This modification allowed them to be perfect subjects to appropriate and transform into birdhouses, giving Starling the opportunity to have his audience question these opposing forces of utopia and dystopia.

      Starling’s other work are a series of photos called Burn Time (2000).  Superficially these prints are very amusing, as they capture an installation in which Starling built a chicken coop modeled after a museum of a German Artist whose designs of glass egg poachers Starling revered.  Nonetheless it made my night seeing chickens frolicking about such a finely crafted architectural model.  Something about Starling’s work at the Bass made me think of Earth n’ Us Farm, the only organic Urban farm in Little Haiti (7630 NE 1st Ave), and a place where one can see people living in tree houses surrounded by poultry, pigs and produce on the ground below. 

Bass Museum of Art 2121 Park Avenue Miami Beach, FL 33139 T 305.673.7530 F 305.674.5475