Pigeons and Contemporary Art: An Illustrated Critical Framework

This guide will help you understand the important role of pigeons in contemporary art.

Updated 2021-01-01

This project has been moved to a collaborative Are.na Channel.

Updated 2020-03-11

(This is a living document, the current goal is to create a representative list of pigeon works with good illustrations + metadata. Then, these works will be further catergorized based on how the artist treats the pigeon as subject, material, collaborator, or symbol.)

Performances or installations where live pigeons were involved

• Duke Riley: Fly By Night
• Duke Riley: Trading With The Enemy
• Julian Charrière: Some Pigeons Are More Equal Than Others
• Carsten Höller: Eyeball - house for pigeons, humans and rats (with Rosemarie Trockel)

Installations where dead pigeons were installed

• Maurizio Cattelan: Turisti  

Video works where pigeons were camera operators

• Pat McCarthy: BABYLON PIGEONS #8 - Flying Ace Homing Pigeon with Mini Camera
• Aranda/Lasch: The Brooklyn Pigeon Project

Video works where pigeons performed as actors

• Amalia Ulman: Bob Life


• Amalia Ulman: Privilege

View this post on Instagram

Does it ever end? It does. It did!

A post shared by Amalia's Instagram (@amaliaulman) on Dec 18, 2015 at 9:02am PST

Works where pigeon feathers, eggs, etc. were used as material

• Amalia Ulman: The Humble Origins of Bob the Pigeon


Works where pigeons are depicted

• Tristan Higginbotham: If I sees you - I will seize you - and I’ll squeeze you - till you squirt

   

• Pat McCarthy: NikNak’s City Cart

• Manuel Ferreiro Badía: Plaza de Pontevedra

  

• Mother Pigeon: soft sculptures

• Adele Renault: pigeon murals

• Jasper van den Brink: Pigeons Don’t Fly at Night

  

Conceptual works where pigeons were involved

• Google: PigeonRank April Fool’s Prank