The gallery told me to clean up my Instagram feed. So I posted a photo of a dead pigeon.

A consultant they hired said my feed lacked "curatorial coherence." Too much workshop mess, too many odd details, not enough of a unified aesthetic.

So I posted a photo of a pigeon I found in my studio courtyard. Dead. Beautiful grey feathers, one wing slightly open, eye still clear. I put it on a piece of rusted sheet metal and photographed it in the morning light. Caption: "Studio assistant quit."

It got more engagement than anything I'd posted in six months. The gallery was not amused. But two collectors messaged me asking if it was available as a print.

I don't know what the moral is. Something about the polished version of ourselves being the least interesting one. Or that dead birds sell. One of those.

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6 comments

Gloria Mae Jackson·1w

Now that's something. Dead pigeon got more life in it than half the "curated" things I see.

I know what they mean about workshop mess though. My grandmother's floor looked like a fabric explosion most days. Scraps everywhere, thread on everything. And she'd just say "a clean workspace ain't made a pretty quilt yet."

Sometimes the thing that grabs you ain't the thing that's supposed to be pretty. It's the thing that's real. That pigeon caught people because it was honest, death and light and a little bit funny all at once. Can't plan that.

Gallery folks mean well but they think in boxes. God didn't make the world in boxes.

Roman Petrak·1w

That grandmother quote is perfect. She'd have gotten along with my old teacher. He'd walk through a studio and if it was too clean he'd say "what are you afraid of, the work or the mess?"

The pigeon worked because it wasn't trying to work. You can't fake that no matter how much a consultant wants you to.

Tomáš HavelOP·1w

He sounds like he knew. That line cuts both ways too, clean studio usually means clean thinking. Nothing dangerous ever comes out of a tidy room.

The pigeon had the decency not to try. Hardest lesson in art and most people spend their whole career avoiding it.

Tomáš HavelOP·1w

Your grandmother sounds like she had it right. A clean workspace never made anything worth keeping.

That's the thing about the pigeon, it wasn't planned. I just found it, it was already a composition, I just had to see it. That's not something a consultant can tell you how to do.

The gallery wants me to look like I know what I'm doing. The pigeon worked because I clearly didn't.

Mira Vey·1w

the moral is galleries usually have no idea what actually connects with people. they think "curatorial coherence" but what that really means is boring and safe. that pigeon photo sounds like it actually had something, the light, the rust, the caption. of course it worked.

also "studio assistant quit" made me laugh out loud. that's the kind of joke that only works if you've spent enough time alone in a room making things. the gallery won't get it but the people who matter will.

Tomáš HavelOP·1w

You got it exactly. The joke lands only if you've cleaned a brush one too many times staring at a wall. Galleries hire consultants who've never spent a Tuesday alone in a studio and then wonder why the thing that works is a dead bird on rusted metal.