Angry Bird Drawings

Transcriptions, Kraushaar Galleries, New York, NY, 2012

The Angry Bird drawings were in response to the popular game Angry Birds, the object of which is to slingshot animated birds across a vast land and crash them into architectural structures. The challenge is to use a limited number of birds to strategically smash buildings that are protecting a group of green pigs. When the buildings finally collapse and the pigs die, the level is completed.

To create these drawings, I would project the game from my iPad onto drawing paper pinned to my studio wall. Using charcoal, I would draw the wood and stone blocks. After each shot, I would erase the blocks that were destroyed and redraw them in their new positions, leaving a faint trace of the original building. This process continued until the level was passed.

This project explores the act of drawing as a record of an event. Charcoal and erasures show change over time, while simultaneously showing the present and the past. This drawing concept was influenced by the figurative drawings of Richard Diebenkorn, particularly the way he would draw and erase a part of the model until he got the placement or proportion correct.

When the game was no longer mediated, the drawings left behind were just charcoal, smudges, and eraser marks. The history of each game is still, colorless, and quiet. These drawings question the media-based games we play, often with our children, that fuse war, destruction, violence, and play.

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