Kasper Bosmans
40 panels
86 5/8 x 252 x 1 1/8 inches (220 x 640 x 3 cm) assembled
Further images
Melchior d’Hondecoeter, a seventeenth-century Dutch painter, is well known for his decorative lifelike depictions of birds, both endemic to The Netherlands and from around the world. In showing the diversity of birds from across the globe, d’Hondecoeter not only exoticized the specimens, but also emphasized this collection of ornithological knowledge vis-a-vis the painted image.
Ornithologist Ruud Viek made an inventory of all the birds depicted by d’Hondecoeter, and in “Bird Nose Count,” Bosmans chose to depict, to scale, the egg of every single bird in this list. In this gesture, Bosmans coyly reveals the commercial impact on the West's portrayal of zoological history, a fact underscored by the enamel medium utilized for this work, which harkens to a material closely associated with advertising.