Cuckoo

During the last two years, but primarily as part of a Dean’s Summer Fellows collaboration, I created 16 works in a series about womanhood. The theme is further broken into three categories: becoming an adult, postpartum motherhood (or lack of motherhood) and contemplating one’s end of life. These are considered times when women experienced what has been described in literature as hysteria or madness. 

This series also looks critically at the use of birds in folklore history. Is their fragility inspiring? Is it the fact that they can usually fly away in the story? Are wings and beaks intriguing to writers because humans do not possess them? Is the birdcage concept just a creepy fetish? It’s all cuckoo.