Toward the end of 2005, romanticized bird imagery was becoming one of the biggest trends in home décor and personal adornment.  It was everywhere, from file folders, journals, and jewelry to cards, wallpaper, napkins, tablecloths, placemats, clothing, and much, much more.

Simultaneously, news coverage of the avian flu began converging with images and talk of Thanksgiving turkeys.  Televised images of the mass extermination of diseased birds followed those of the President cutely pardoning a turkey in a bowtie, and I began thinking of the disparity between the filthy, diseased birds, living and dying on top of one another, and the sentimental Audubon Society style of representation I was seeing everywhere.

The disconnect here is that the world stands on the verge of a possible pandemic with birds at the center, and people are decorating their homes and bodies with sentimentalized avian imagery.  Distorted, grotesque, and darkly funny, Bird Flew offers an alternate perception of birds.