Bird Sanctuary

I dedicate this work to Nicolas and the other kids. Climb trees, sing, laugh, but above all, don’t hurt yourselves!

Music has always been an influential part of my daily life. As I believe that the third art form is the most universal and stimulating of the senses, I felt it was necessary to pay it the most beautiful tribute possible.

When, in the summer of 2024, Judson O’Keefe from the interior design firm Sean Anderson Design asked me to imagine a space dedicated to music for a client, I was delighted to be able to create such a tribute.

Based on a speaker (Mélomane I) that I had designed two years earlier, the goal was to create a long row of cabinets to house a hi-fi system and storage for vinyl records.
True to my attachment to sacredness, the outer legs are elongated above the sideboard and end in candle holders, giving a religious yet personal meaning to the tree-like ensemble. I saw the storage space and its contents as the roots. The central trunk symbolizes the common, universal basis of music, while the branches represent the diversity of music.
But the tree is also a beautiful and robust being, a refuge for many creatures, especially birds, constant singers, whose importance to my ears is greater than that of other musicians. Waking up in the morning to the sound of birds, I can never think of this song.

« And we’re coming out of dreams
As we’re coming back to dreams
Yeah, we’re coming out of dreams
As we’re coming back to dreams
Dreams are thoughts in lotus and chains
Chains are broken in the morning
By the first bird’s, first song »

Bill Callahan, First Bird, 2022

While creating this work for the United States, I also wanted to pay tribute to the authors and musicians who have always accompanied me, always inspired me, always transported me to their worlds, letting me be carried away by the vibrations of their instruments and their prose, always sung with beauty and modesty. I am referring to Andrew Bird, Bill Callahan, Okkervil River, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and the discreet Chris Eckman.

This tribute also includes Seattle radio station KEXP, which accompanies me throughout my days in the studio and, in my opinion, is the voice of hope amid the chaos.
It is then, digging deep into my subconscious, that I realize that birds and music have nourished me since my childhood, from my parents’ garden where birds woke me up in the morning through the open window in summer and I would come down from my room to find my parents already listening to music on the living room speakers as they prepared lunch. And then in the evening, they would lull me to sleep, accompanied by the sound of the wind in the trees, and now I am still amazed in the morning by birdsong, no matter where I am.

Dimensions:

Depth: 50 cm

Width: 310 cm

Heigh: 230 cm