My Pigeon Milton
Sculpture series - Cut and welded steel, treated surface and black paint, 2.5 x 1m / 1.5 x 1m. Beaux Arts Gallery, London (2018).
In the boiling Korean Summer of 2015 a baby pigeon somehow found its way to my doorway. Covered in its own blood, and shivering from shock, I tried to ignore it and allow nature to take its course. I was, of course, taught that this was the sensible thing to do. But after several distressed hours of hearing it call for help, and just as a car was about to reverse over it, I scooped the baby up in panic and tried to see if I could help it become mobile. I was working in Incheon, Korea, at the time, and struggled a lot to find the things I needed to help the little bird. I did not expect it to live through the first night, but it was a fighter and by the second day it was drinking and washing the coagulated blood from its feathers. It quickly occurred to me that we were keeping each other company in a place where we were both very alienated. I will never forget Milton.
I named the little bird Milton, and it sat on my shoulder as I walked around town, flapping its wings and practicing flight. Separately, we were both quite unremarkable - but together we became a spectacle, the lost english man with a little flapping pigeon riding on his shoulder. Several days passed and under my protection Milton looked almost set to fly away. By this time he was following me everywhere I went. I have never been able to forget Milton, and continue to sketch him from memory and from this one remaining film I have.
My Pigeon Milton 2, Steel, treated surface and black paint (2015), 1 x 1.65m
My Pigeon Milton 1, Steel, treated surface and black paint (2015), 1.65 x 1m
My Pigeon Milton 1 detail
My Pigeon Milton 2, Steel, treated surface and black paint (2015), 1 x 1.65m
My Pigeon Milton 2 close up