Taub
Slipcast Ceramic Pigeons, St Enoch’s Square 2024
To purchase a pigeon, please head to my shop HERE
Taub is a series of slip-cast pigeons that reflect human behaviours shaped by instinct, repetition and digital overconsumption. Cast from decoy birds, they are a copy of an imitation, a metaphor for our vices, mundane routines and primal instinct to survive. Named after the German word meaning both “pigeon” and “deaf”, Taub symbolises a society that mimics, adapts and survives, while refusing to truly listen or change.
To me, pigeons are not just pigeons. They mirror the workings of our society through primal instinct. Synanthropic by nature, they live off human waste, just as I find myself consuming endless content, scrolling through Instagram, eating a diet of brown and yellow food. I sympathise with them, but I also envy them. Their lives seem simpler, more honest.
Pigeons reflect their environment. They adapt to the world they are given. In this way, Taub is also about resilience and overlooked value. I have given them shiny legs as a gesture of honour. Once used to carry messages, now ignored and called vermin, pigeons remain strong by sticking together. They survive.
When shown in public spaces, the Taub pigeons exist quietly alongside real pigeons. The live birds seem unsettled by them, unsure whether these rigid forms are friend or threat. I like this uneasy relationship. The sculptures mimic the living, hiding in plain sight, almost able to pass. They highlight the tension between what is real and what is constructed, what survives and what stagnates. In the current state of things, I think we are all pigeons. We are all Taub.