The Birds Archives (2024)

In her ongoing project, The Birds Archives, Karolina Dema is creating a series of A4 oil paintings on paper, aiming to depict all 11,145 bird species cataloged by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Presented here is a selection of 22 birds from the 100 or so bird paintings already created.

The Birds Archives deals with collective memory, questioning what is preserved and handed down to future generations. As species vanish, what remains of their legacy? By uniting them in her paintings, Karolina creates a dynamic representation of our planet's ornithological landscape at a time of increasing extinction rates. Their memory is preserved through this gallery of portraits.

The 11,145 species that Karolina seeks to portray include now-extinct birds, species living in the wild where some face near-extinction, and human-made breeds - domesticated birds like roosters, geese, parrots, falcons, pigeons, and canaries, to name a few. To that end, the Birds Archives exposes the extent of Sapiens' modified environment, starting with the birds that surround them on a daily basis. Original source materials for the Birds Archives come from various encyclopaedia, to which Karolina has since added contributions from online bird societies from all over the world.

The Birds Archives will be displayed for the 1rst time in the Birds Room, as part of Demo Dema’s show A ROOM FULL OF SIGNS from Nov 21-23. Get in touch for a virtual visit of the show: info@demodema.com