Saturday 14 June 2008

Coming to a gull roost near you

Birders who 'don't do gulls' would be well advised to stay away from Folkestone at the moment. As part of a 'public art' event in the town, American artist Mark Dion has created a "mobile gull appreciation unit." A giant gull on wheels, it will be "driven round Folkestone complete with its onboard gull expert and gull library."

(Photo nicked from the Guardian in flagrant breach of copyright laws)

I've peered very closely at the photo, but I don't think either of the two people inside the gull is Klaus Malling Olsen, because he (rather worryingly) looks like this.

After the Folkestone event is over, the unit will undertake a tour of well-known gull roosts around Britain in an attempt to get more birders to take an interest in pointless crap like how to separate 1st-winter barabensis from eastern cacchinans.

Actually I made that last bit up - Tracey Emin's going to live in it for a year, fill it with hairbrushes and used condoms and then exhibit it at Tate Modern. OK, I made that up too - it will probably just end up as a novelty ice cream kiosk in Folkestone.

9 comments:

The Drunkbirder said...

He could have done a better job of modelling a gull. That looks like a fucking five year old sketched out the basics. The proprtions are all wrong and that bill is just ridiculous.

The Leicester Llama said...

That's modern art for you!

davidearlgray said...

Hooray for modern art, like your description of Tracey Emin, probably one of most overated artist in the UK at the moment, along with Mr Shark Man or Damien Hurst for short!

John Judge said...

Can we have it sent to Draycote for this winter? If nothing else it will keep us dry whilst trying to work out calandar years when we just got our heads round ist winters and the like!!

The Leicester Llama said...

Anyone who watched the Culture Show on BBC2 last night will have seen the gull appreciation unit in action. I thought Vic Reeves, who presented that part of the show, looked slightly pissed off that he hadn't thought of it himself. Just say "gull appreciation unit" in a Vic Reeves style voice, and you'll see what I mean!

It was also good to see that they didn't mention Tracey Emin at all, despite the fact that she's taking part in the Folkestone event.

Harry said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Mackay
Hmm...no mention of the Llamas!

Martyn Yapp said...

I managed to catch up with it at Chew Valley Lake, were it's taken a liking to Herriot's Pool.

Richard Fray said...

If it can have wheels fitted then surely it can also be made to float.

I like the idea of sailing it out into the gull roost at Eyebrook.

I don't much like the idea of actually looking at gulls when you're out there though. That'd be boring.

Steve said...

Ah, but viewers of The Culture Show will know that Vick Reeves was the first to find and identify the gull appreciaton unit. I'm sure they missed an acronym-boasting name here - Gull Unit for Lovers of Laridea (GULL). Don't worry Andy - I only tuned in to the TCS a couple of times and still find the dummed down version of culture on offer is still too bourgois for me!