City flocks to the aid of popular bird statues
The Birds in Olympic Village need protection from the public.
The much beloved giant male and female sparrows are caged by fencing so that a previously planned, protective 3M coating can cure properly.
One of the birds also had to be repaired after a chunk on the outer shell was torn away.
Eric Fredericksen, the City of Vancouver’s public art program manager, said while the fencing is up, the city is taking the opportunity to figure out how to make the sculptures less attractive for people to physically engage with.
“We don’t really have access to knowing exactly what happens when they do get damaged,” Fredericksen said.
“We’re thinking through the setting so we can improve them in a way to make them less attractive to do things like skating off them.”
While they’re not designed as play structures, the tails can take climbing on them by children, he said. What they can’t take is metal directly applied to the shell.
The city is also looking to do outreach work in the Olympic Village community to educate people about how The Birds should and should not be engaged with.
Last October, the birds were removed for repairs caused by skateboarders and BMX bikers who used the bird tails as ramps. People also regularly climbed over the sculptures, which are 41/2 metres in height at their tallest.
They were re-installed in August. The latest repairs and coating are within the original $425,000 budget envelope.
The Birds were created by Vancouver artist Myfanwy MacLeod. Inspirations for the work include Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 horror film The Birds and the way sparrows have expanded their presence in North America since being introduced in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1851.
Once repaired, the two sculptures had their painted polyurea over polystyrene shell replaced with much harder and more durable aluminum.
The Birds received their final protective covering in September because the fabricators didn’t have enough time to apply it before the sculptures were re-installed in mid-August.
The Birds were installed shortly after the 2010 Winter Olympics.