Bethany Krull, The Canary is Long Dead
by :
Brooke Leboeuf
Bethany Krull, The Canary is Long Dead, 2019, mixed media. Installation view, PLAY/GROUND, 2019. Photo: KC Kratt, courtesy Resource:Art.
Amid the energetic hustle and bustle of this year’s edition of PLAY/GROUND in Medina, New York, was a dark, quiet space: a former janitors’ closet that artist Bethany Krull transformed to realize her mysterious and moving work, The Canary is Long Dead (2019). Illuminated by a single light source, an eerie suspended birdcage is the only discernible object in a space emptied of its contents and painted all black. Inside the cage are the remains of a small bird; porcelain white bones gently lie in a soft bed of moss and greenery dotted with delicate pink flowers. It is at once beautiful and heartbreaking: something happened here that shouldn’t have, something precious was lost that can’t be brought back.
Both the scene and its title allude to the expression “canary in a coal mine,” which describes the long-obsolete practice of bringing caged birds into coal mines to test for the presence of dangerous gases that may have been unearthed. This leads to thoughts of indiscriminate death and loss, and of the effect that the needs and desires of modern life have had on our environment. As noted in the PLAY/GROUND guide, this piece “is an urgent call to action,” as climate change has already caused irreversible losses. Krull’s quiet tragedy, situated within the context of such a lively artistic event, reminds us that the damage to our natural world has for too long played out without the attention it deserves, an insidious calamity amid our everyday lives.
Brooke Leboeuf is an arts writer, private art collection consultant, and an ardent supporter of Buffalo’s thriving arts scene.
PLAY/GROUND, 324 Catherine St., Medina NY
September 27 – 29, 2019
