Melanie Jordan

Statement

For the past three years I’ve been using a variety of mediums to explore a fractal of birds that can be detailed until it appears tessellated. My favourite medium is small, smooth rocks that provide a great surface to build 2-dimensional birds with a 3-dimensional component. I use the natural shape of the rock to inform a multipoint perspective. I also build larger iterations of the fractal with multiple rocks and the result, using forced perspective, is a wide variety of birds perching, walking, flying and swimming. I use my art to communicate how I see the world and that world is birds. Birds all the way down.

Artworks

Menagerie is an interactive fractal consisting of 25 smallish rocks covered in all manner of birds. This photo shows just a handful of the endless permutations possible. I encourage you to play with small groups of rocks and by closing one eye and and connecting a drawn line on each rock, create your own fractal pattern of birds. Slightly move the rock, connect two new lines and see an eagle become a chicken or a goose become a swan. Use shadow and light to create even more birds both larger and smaller.