Conference of the Birds is the new exhibit, curated by Cynthia Reeves, featured at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, New Jersey. Mana Contemporary is the new 125,000 square foot space that brings together curated exhibits, artist studios, and art storage all under the roof of Jersey City’s first contemporary art museum. Conference of the Birds examines the aesthetic and ecological impact birds have had on the world through the conceptual installations, photography, video, paintings and drawings of thirty different artists from all over. The exhibition’s title is taken from a Sufi text of the same name that tells a parable about the quest for enlightenment. Reeves wanted this exhibit to examine birds’ relationship with their various environments as a means to make a commentary on humans relationship with earth. According to Reeves, “Birds are the only complex species on the planet that inhabit the three realms: air, water and earth.” By witnessing how successful birds are, not only adaptively but reproductively, Reeves hopes museum-goers will become introspective, examining their own species destructive relationship with nature. Conference of the Birds is the Cynthia-Reeves Project’s third exhibition dealing with timely, ecological issues, the other two being H2O: Film on Water and Fabrications, which were both set in a 20,000 square foot facility in New England.
Conference of the Birds is open Monday through Friday 9am-5pm, or by appointment at Mana Contemporary, 888 Newark Avenure, Jersey City, NJ
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Emily Kirkpatrick for The Untitled Magazine
