A flock of giant neon pigeons will be perching on downtown Orlando rooftops later this month as part of the ongoing series of public art installations paid for by the Downtown Development Board.
The first installation in the DDB-sponsored series was a 20×40-foot rainbow archway called “No Place Like Home” created by the Creative City Project team. We wrote about it previously HERE. As August approaches, that archway will slowly phase out and be replaced by a new installation that in turn will be replaced after two months, as part of a year-long art initiative in the downtown core.
The pigeons were a result of a group think tank with a room full of local artists and creatives of which I was a participant, earlier this spring. Now, you may be asking, “Why pigeons?” Once revered for their roles in communication, companionship, and even warfare, pigeons have gradually been relegated to the sidelines of city life, often viewed with disdain and disregarded as pests.
In what sociologists call our “imaginative geography” of cities, there’s a border that separates clean, orderly civilization and wild, uncontrolled nature. When dandelions push through asphalt, alligators swim into our sewers, or pigeons crap in/on spaces we’ve built for people, it can be seen as an invasion that questions the permanency or stability of our built world.
By magnifying their presence through a series of neon, oversized 16-foot-tall inflatable sculptures, viewers are invited to reconsider the pigeon’s place in our shared urban landscape.
Through this installation, Creative City Project and its partners seek to spark dialogue about how we as a society imagine nature in the city, and the boundaries we try to place on non-human species in urban areas. Ultimately, the hope is that by bringing these inflatable pigeons into the forefront of public consciousness, we can foster a greater appreciation for the interconnectedness of all living beings and inspire empathy towards those often overlooked or maligned.
Expect the pigeons to pop up sometime around August 17th. Stay tuned for more information.
Heya Brenda! I love reading your articles and seeing you on Tom & Dan (you’re easily my favorite guest). I heard you talk about this last Friday with them, and I guess my opinions echoes Tom’s a bit. When do you think this city will stop wasting money on BS and pushing aside the true needs of the citizens? The city is systematically gentrifying everything between downtown to the soccer stadium which is actively disenfranchising the majority of its resident population all while singlehandly decimating the nightlife culture that gave Orlando its appeal. I know the extra funding comes as a blessing to the art culture, and rightfully so, but what goal are we trying to achieve? Push all the colored and poor people out of the city so that we can better appeal to a the white middle class family? A caste that is rapidly disappearing? The very bones of this plan will shatter the moment we take an economic downturn and nobody can afford these new, overpriced store fronts they are proposing. When this bubble does burst, these poorly placed “investments” in arts will be our financial downfall as a city. Instead of courting affluence, we should be helping our citizens achieve it. This city doesn’t need art, its people need action.
On a positive note, I can’t wait to tell my friends “you know a drag queen almost died putting these up, right?”
With love , Your follower,
Austin Thomas