Aubrey Birdwell

“PROPOSED LAND USE” was a multi-disciplinary installation designed, built, and organized by Aubrey Birdwell.

These sculptures, created from repurposed land use signs, reveal a prevailing sentiment in many cities today - one of alienation, displacement and permanent change in communities and the built environment. Former histories are mourned as public spaces disappear - making out at Bridge to Nowhere, the multiple romantically scabbed faces of the Maharaja, karaoke at Bus Stop, local ice wizards performing at Kincora, smoking cigarettes upstairs at Bauhaus, homes and cafes are replaced by private, exclusive structures. How can a city develop an active body politic and a sustainable cultural legacy? Where do communities exist, and where can we express our communal and individual voices? In the developing city, where do personal and collective histories intersect; how do they intertwine and become a part of our shared history? Who records this intersection?

The recording of history has been the provenance of colonialism; now it’s increasingly important to rediscover, tell and affirm individual and communal narratives that describe our homes and familial and familiar stories about place, gender, eroticism, consumption and inhabit our bodies and the architecture that confines us.

Aubrey Birdwell is a Seattle based artist working in diverse mediums. Influenced by materials of, and waste generated by, the sign industry. Working with discarded and abandoned materials, he comments on place, permanence, and urban human’s quest for meaning in a sea of symbols and floating garbage. Since moving to Seattle in 2007 he has worked extensively with the New Mystics as a foundational member, collaborator and fabricator.

PROPOSED LAND USE was a multidimensional art show created by Seattle-based artist Aubrey Birdwell, commenting on development and displacement using the garbage of the sign industry. Inviting collaboration with Ukrainian-born photographer Darya Husak, members of New Mystics and our friends at ART PRIMO, PROPOSED LAND USE consisted of two and three dimensional objects made from disused proposed land use panels, plastics, and found and created images.

All components of the show were fabricated by Birdwell. Small 2d coffin shapes were distributed to members of the New Mystics for individual expression and an additional series of plain plywood panels were provided for Darya Husak’s clear vinyl prints of photos she had taken of lost city landmarks.