At the core of a mythology lies a fragment of reality. Over time, the reality fades away, and the mythology continues to live on—a process examined more closely in The Evolution of Birds (2019). This work explores the inevitable decay of the object of mythology through a four-part painting series. We are introduced to an elegant dinosaur, enchanted by its beautiful song and stunning plumage, like a prehistoric bird of paradise. Millions of years later, in the 1600s, the clumsy dodo roams the forests. Described by Dutch colonizers—the first to observe the dodo—as fat, awkward, and stupid, it was extinct just a few decades later. The extinction of the dodo marked the first time humanity's role in species extinction was recognized.
Our image of the dodo is almost a caricature of a species, which in the second part of the work is contrasted with today’s bird industry. It’s worth noting that archaeological finds of bone remains in modern times have provided clear evidence that the dodo was a bird species highly adapted to its environment. The scene of jackdaws pecking at the remains of their fried cousins is a tragic one—these descendants of the magical dinosaurs have been reduced to winged pests feeding off our waste in our streets. The machinery that drives this decay is depicted in the final part of the series, where money and food circulate feverishly between consumer and industry in a carousel of excess. What image have we created of birds, and of ourselves, that allows this? And how does this connect to our image of dinosaurs, the ancestors of birds?