Pink-necked green pigeons and the observer effect
Catherine Hu
Neighbourhood: Ang Mo Kio

“The nest was a fragile sieve of twigs, loosely woven together and balanced between two branches. It rained heavily in early May. I didn’t expect the nest to survive, but when I went back to check on it after several days of unusually brutal downpour it was still intact. I could tell my visits made the birds nervous (I would also be nervous if an animal the size of a skyscraper kept showing up outside my house to stare at me) and though I was afraid I would scare them away, they were cute and I was too curious to leave them be.

My camera was an outdoor security camera that connected to an app on my phone to let me view live footage. There wasn’t much to see for the most part; brooding largely involved sitting alone and immobile for long periods of time.

Pink-necked green pigeons are communal birds that feed and roost in flocks, though they also form monogamous bonds to raise chicks in pairs. The parents took turns incubating, the male in the day and the female at night, switching shifts in the early morning and late afternoon. I got notifications whenever their activities triggered my camera’s motion sensor. I wanted to document everything I could.”

- excerpt from page 1 of text work

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BACKYARD explores the phenomenon of how events become news. This collection of reports seeks to create a spatial tapestry of “news” contributed by artists living in different parts of Singapore. By inviting them to document the happenings within their neighbourhoods within specific windows of time, BACKYARD presents artists’ documentations as news reports spanning across 12 months. Each report contributes to a year-long narrative map of Singapore, positioning the artist as reporter. BACKYARD is an art space that takes place in the form of dossiers containing news reports by Singapore based artists.