JOSIP ŠURLIN
Birdhouse, 2018
installation; wood, rubber, chromium, clocks, coat, LED lamp, 150 x 70 x 50 cm
photographs: Tomo Jeseničnik
The work Birdhouse is an installation made as a geometric wooden structure in which are placed: rubber dust, a coat, clock motors and an LED lamp. On the front side of the installation a circular opening is located through which the recipient of the work can look. Its interior is filled with rubber granulate of an intense smell, light and clock motors that produce sounds of needle strokes. The installation represents a narrow claustrophobic space with its visual identity being enhanced by aspects such as scent or sound. Moreover, this work is fashioned to resemble a stylized birdhouse; however, its interior suggests a human resident absent from the chaotic debris. A hanging coat emphasizes this notion as well as other objects such as clocks. Thus, a small living space becomes replaced with a desolate “house for birds” reeking of industrial rubber and where echoes of clock wheels “reflect on seclusion”. Symbolically, the installation functions as a subtle commentary on the loss of housing spaces in the city of Split, which are increasingly devoured by tourism. Its meaning can also be interpreted in a broader sense due to the very problem surrounding housing spaces that is evident in events such as immigration or ghettoization.