Fight or Flight

Have a look to your right. A parrot! This is an extremely powerful image. The elegant parrot is the smallest piece and is spatially in the background, yet the positioning of its wings and the ruffled tail feathers attribute to it such a state of movement and velocity that it is drawn into the foreground, leaving the surrounding demonic figures to simply loom around it, instead of allowing them to take the main stage. Rigid geometrical shapes form an enclosure for the bird; it is confined from behind by the triangle, and from in front by the bars across the window – it has nowhere to go. The combination of the confined space along with the highly active state of the parrot evokes a desperate feeling of claustrophobia which is furthered when considering the fact that birds are often used to represent freedom. Is the parrot trying to escape the menacing creatures around it? Do they represent its fears? Once more, the familiar image of a bird enhances the surrounding pieces by making them more accessible to the audience: it is as if it provides the imaginary figures with a worm hole to reality through which they can more readily confront the viewer.

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