June 3, 2016
If memory can be trusted – and I wouldn’t, necessarily – the background of this montage was based on a photograph taken two years ago at the Louvre. Something about that luscious chair appealed. The focus, however, was supposed to be the crow – a bird species I hold special feelings for. When my children were young I convinced them (probably one of the last times I convinced them of anything) that I could communicate with crows, and you could see me flapping about the backyard, wildly cawing, to the consternation of the bird population and probably the amusement of the rest of the neighborhood.
Crows are not just quite intelligent birds, they are culturally adaptive, superb tool makers and sport an incredible multitude of voices and expressions. For a short introduction there is the TED talk below, for longer perusal there is an interesting book, In the Company of Crows and Ravens, by John M. Marzluff.
https://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows?language=en
If you are lucky enough to travel to Paris in the next months and if the Louvre is on your list of things to see, you will be surprised. The I.M. Pei pyramid in the courtyard, so controversial at its inception and so beloved now, is playing hide and seek. Muralist JR, commissioned by the museum, is casting a trompe l’oeil spell over the structure. The article below explains in more detail (and is surprisingly catty when discussing work of another graffiti artist, Banksy.) https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2016/may/26/louvre-pyramid-trompe-l-oeil-jr-im-pei-paris-museum I, by the way, when first visiting, was startled by all these people in front of the pyramid holding up their arms until I inquired: if you photograph them from a specific angle, it looks as if they are touching the top of the pyramid. Another bit of useless knowledge crowding my brain……
Steve Tilden
Crows, Corvids, indeed wonderful and smart. I was in Vilnius, at a park, during a folk festival — dance, costumes, singing — and I was tossing bits of bread to the birds. The pigeons all ran toward the bread, the sparrows flew over them, grabbed the bread, and flew back. The pigeons, stopped, confused, then ran back. This several times. Then a European crow (some gray markings) beat the sparrows to the bread, flew back over the milling pigeons, but did not eat the bread. Instead it flew over to a second crow, who took the bread from its beak. The first crow then crouched down, beak open, and fluttered its feathers. The second crow then gave the bread back, and the first crow ate it. Adolescent gets food, but mom has to give it before it can be eaten. Very funny.
“Bird Brains” by Candace Savage, wonderful photographs and stories about what Corvids can do.