Details
Rat, Rose, Bird explores empire, colonialism, mortality and love. Subtly mashing up cultures, curios, objects and ideas, the piece is a poetic meditation on farewells, departures, long journeys and "the hunt" - for a better life, a better love, a place to drop anchor or a space to claim ("finally!") as one's own. Inhabiting the work as a kind of hostess/magician, Sheila reveals, explodes and mixes together a range of ingredients including champagne, rats, roses and birds in order to re-enact a set of memories, remembrances, exits and endings - over and over again. Perhaps there's something to be learnt by invoking the past? Or perhaps it's nothing more than a series of repetitions?