“FRAGMENTS OF THE BIRDS OF AMERICA”
This part of the Image Hunter exhibition is centred on the book The Birds of America. This series of etched birds are my own Birds of America.
The plates depict part of the personal record of the specimens observed during the voyage in 2015, each subject has been renamed with some story or fact related to its observation. Etched on irregular fragments of copper, the plates are no bigger than 2.5×2.5 in, the whole print work is done with the same technique as the printer Robert Havell reproduced Audubon’s watercolour for his magnificent book in 1827: etching and aquatint, in my work only the colouring is missing.
I etched and printed all the 53 plates in my studio in Rome and collected everything in a book: “Fragments of the Birds of America”. Hand bound into an edition of 9\9 precious and unique exemplars, each book has been composed with a different marbled paper and different colours for the leather binding of the spine.
The book is embedded in a larger cloth box with screen printed and relief decorations, this choice of format enhances the perception of miniature creating a playful contrast with the opulent size of the double elephant folio of Audubon’s The Birds of America.
