PARTNERS
Explore Charleston Silvercrest asset management group Atlantic Packaging A New Earth Project The Charleston Museum the dewberry hotel
in partnership with
presents
WELCOME
February 11 – April 3, 2022
Charleston, South Carolina
RESOURCES
LOCATIONS
garden & Gun
The dewberry hotel
joseph manigault house
locations
This experience is best viewed on a mobile device.
CURATORIAL STATEMENT
Brandon Ballengée
Clare Celeste Börsch
Drew Lanham
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From the first issue on, Garden & Gun has chronicled the natural world of the South, the plight of our region’s birds, and the various conservation efforts that have sought to protect them and their environments. Today, G&G is proud to present these stories in a new light. Set among some of Charleston’s most beautiful and historically significant locations, this exhibition showcases extraordinary Lowcountry stories and artifacts alongside contemporary artworks—some of which have been imagined and created for this very occasion. Not unlike bird-watching in the wild, this experience promises surprises and discoveries around every corner. As you explore each site, we encourage you to look and listen closely, taking in the subtle magic at hand. We hope this exhibition leaves you with a deeper appreciation for the wild wonders all around us and a better understanding of Charleston and its avian history—perhaps even inspired to take action. In the fight for conservation, the engagement of the community is invaluable, and we are proud to consider you part of our flock.
Kelly S. Turner is a historic and contemporary art, architecture, and design curator with extensive knowledge and experience in directing, designing, and curating world-class art programs, projects, and experiences. Her research-based curatorial practice is committed to critically engaging contemporary issues and broadening historical perspectives by producing immersive context-driven exhibitions, installations, and environments that center on distinctive narratives and experiences in unique and unexpected sites and locations. Turner has developed art programs and built collections for many distinguished clients, with notable projects including Wynn Palace (Cotai) and Encore Boston Harbor (Massachusetts). She has held positions in the Sculpture and Decorative Arts Department at the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the Department of Lectures, Exhibitions and Academic Publications at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.
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Drawing from nature, the splendors of bird-watching, and the interconnectivity between humans and the natural world, this immersive experience takes viewers on a journey between the Joseph Manigault House, The Dewberry hotel, and the Garden & Gun offices at the Cigar Factory, sparking wonder and awareness of avian conservation. Curated and artistically directed by Kelly S. Turner, each individual birdscape is inspired by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century artist-naturalists and features the work of artists Brandon Ballengée, Clare Celeste Börsch, and J. Drew Lanham.
Staged throughout the historic home, this immersive installation offers encounters with rare and endangered bird specimens as they soar through doorways, perch on mantles, and flutter in unexpected places. In each room, whimsical scenes showcase artifacts and objects from the Charleston Museum’s vast collections alongside various contemporary works, together contextualizing Southeastern birds and bringing Lowcountry histories to life.
Sidle up to the Living Room’s inviting bar or nestle into a chic banquette to savor three exclusively crafted cocktails, each with special details and accompaniments inspired by Southeastern birds. A site of the Garden & Gun Birdwatching exhibition, the Living Room hosts a one-of-a-kind topiary installation depicting the great North American wood stork. A treasured bird of the Southeast, the wood stork is a once-endangered species now on the cusp of reemergence thanks to recent environmental stewardship efforts.
Christian Bryant, Garden & Gun vice president and publisher
Inspired by the splendors of bird-watching in the wild, this unique art experience invites viewers on a journey between three iconic historic Charleston, South Carolina, locations: Garden & Gun’s Cigar Factory offices, The Dewberry, and the Charleston Museum’s Joseph Manigault House. Composed of a series of immersive, site-specific installations, each site is characterized by an individual birdscape, built around a strategic curatorial ecology to explore the interconnectivity between humans and birds and shine a light on avian conservation. While there is no set itinerary between sites, the spatial and historic center of the exhibition is the Joseph Manigault House, which has been transformed into a spectacular imaginary aviary. Fusing historical archive research with creative narratives and design, the space features unique vignettes and installations that bring together avian specimens, objects, artifacts, and artworks either inspired by or pulled from the vast historic and natural history collections at the Charleston Museum. Evoking the wonder of nineteenth-century artist-naturalists’ cabinets of curiosity, this birdscape (House & Habitat) imaginatively unravels expectations of the natural world by asking visitors to question what they see and hear. The lyrical words and artwork of interdisciplinary author-poet-ornithologist J. Drew Lanham further encourages us to consider the place of birds to unearth histories long buried. Birdwatching continues at two satellite exhibitions. The Dewberry birdscape (Travel & Migration) celebrates the millions of migratory birds that pass through Charleston, returning annually on the Atlantic Flyway in search of diverse food options and places to nest. The birdscape at Garden & Gun’s Cigar Factory offices (Community & Flocks) brings together contemporary artworks and newly commissioned installations by artists Brandon Ballengée and Clare Celeste Börsch, alongside another expansive and personal soundscape by J. Drew Lanham. Vanished avian species such as the Carolina parakeet, Ivory-billed woodpecker, and Bachman’s warbler permeate throughout, while each artist contemplates the fragility of avian existence. Historical erasure unites them all: from Ballengée’s artwork, in which silhouettes of extinct species, excised from historic natural history prints, stand as ghostly apparitions; to Clare Celeste Börsch’s hand-cut paper installations, teeming with native Southeastern flora and fauna that is beautiful yet cautionary; to J. Drew Lanham’s experiential requiem to the Carolina parakeets—Incas and Lady Jane—which explores how bird lives and Black lives intertwine to memorialize those who have been lost to history. When considered together, this immersive experience challenges us to reflect on how we treat not only birds and nature, but ourselves and others. As you visit each site, keep in mind and heart that the title Birdwatching works as a double entendre—it taps into the desire to see birds soaring, flying, and perching, but also serves as a reminder that they, the birds, are watching us. Kelly S. Turner, Curator and Artistic Director, 2022 The curator wishes to give special thanks to: The sponsors of Birdwatching: Explore Charleston, Silvercrest Asset Management Group, Atlantic Packaging, A New Earth Project, Garden & Gun, and The Dewberry for supporting the arts and avian conservation; Friends and colleagues at the Charleston Museum: Carl Borick, Jennifer McCormick, Matthew Gibson, Virginia Theerman, Neil Norden, Stephanie Thomas, Heather Rivet, and Susan McKeller; The Dewberry: John and Jaimie Dewberry, Kristie Rasheed, and Elizabeth Armstrong; and Garden & Gun: Rebecca Darwin, Pierre Manigault, David DiBenedetto, Christian Bryant, Colleen Glenn, Ellie Spann, Caroline O’Neill, Anne Peyton Sugg, Rebecca Marsh, and Abigail Tierney. Thanks also to Drew Thomas, Geoffrey H. Ashley, and the numerous other makers and creatives who infused the installation with additional ideas and possibilities, as well as the artists themselves—Brandon Ballengée, Clare Celeste Börsch, and J. Drew Lanham—whose powerful artwork and voices inspire us to consider the beauty and importance of birds.
about the curator
Collage and paper artist Clare Celeste Börsch was born in Bangkok, Thailand, and has since lived in the United States, Brazil, Italy, Honduras, Argentina, and Germany. Having spent her life assimilating to different cultures and environments, Börsch draws on these diverse impressions to create dynamic collage work, incorporating naturalist imagery from across the globe to form a cohesive visual story. Before becoming a full-time artist, Börsch earned her MPP from UCLA and spent ten years working in public policy. Both her art and policy work are guided by a vision of a more equitable, sustainable, and biodiverse world. Her artwork incorporates thousands of hand-cut images of flora and fauna to create immersive installations evocative of the planet’s threatened biodiversity. In every facet of her work, Börsch is dedicated to raising awareness and inspiring action around ecological and biodiversity crises. Börsch currently lives and works in Berlin with her husband and son.
Artist and biologist Brandon Ballengée creates multimedia works inspired by his ecological field and laboratory research. In 2013, his first career survey exhibition debuted at the Château de Charamarande in Essonne, France, and in 2016, the first retrospective of his work opened at the University of Wyoming Art Museum. Ballengée’s work has been exhibited in more than twenty countries, and his honors include a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, awards from the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative, a Creative Capital Award, and a place among the 2020 Grist 50 Emerging Environmental Leaders. Ballengée holds a Ph.D. in Transdisciplinary Art and Biology from the University of Plymouth (UK) and is currently a research associate at the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science. Together with his wife, sustainable food educator Aurore Ballengée, Ballengée also founded the Atelier de la Nature, an eco-educational campus and nature reserve in Arnaudville, Louisiana.
HOURS Indoor Gallery Viewing Monday-Saturday | 9am-5pm Sunday | 12-5pm Outdoor Projection Viewing Monday–Sunday | 6pm–Midnight
Visit the first-floor gallery of the magazine’s Cigar Factory offices to view works by the exhibition’s featured artists, together drawing attention to avian histories long-vanished. By Clare Celeste Börsch, a collection of Earth Deity suits are on display, as well as an immersive chandelier installation titled Making the Invisible Visible. In addition, Brandon Ballengée’s Frameworks of Absence prints will be shown alongside his commissioned Birdwatching creation, RIP Carolina Parakeet: After John James Audubon. Each evening, keep your eyes peeled for striking images of extinct and endangered birds by Clare Celeste Börsch projected on the smokestack outside the building, accompanied by a powerful soundscape by J. Drew Lanham.
HOURS Monday–Thursday | 7am–12pm, 3–11pm Friday & Saturday | 7am–2pm, 3pm–2am Sunday | 7am–2pm, 3–11pm
HOURS Monday–Saturday | 10am–5pm Sunday | 12–5pm
A native of Edgefield, South Carolina, J. Drew Lanham is a professor of wildlife at Clemson University, where he holds an endowed chair as an Alumni Distinguished Professor and was named an Alumni Master Teacher in 2012. His research focuses on songbird ecology, as well as the African American role in natural resources conservation. Lanham is also the author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, which received the Reed Award from the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Southern Book Prize, and was a finalist for the John Burroughs Medal. Lanham is an avid birder, a passionate naturalist, and a hunter-conservationist whose essays and poetry have been published in publications including Orion, Audubon, Flycatcher, and Wilderness, and in several anthologies, including The Colors of Nature, State of the Heart, Bartram’s Living Legacy, and Carolina Writers at Home. Lanham currently lives with his family in the South Carolina upstate.
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350 Meeting St. Charleston, SC 29403
334 Meeting St. Charleston, SC 29403
701 East Bay St. #115 Charleston, SC 29403
GARDEN & GUN
THE DEWBERRY HOTEL
JOSEPH MANIGAULT HOUSE
Garden & Gun would like to thank our sponsors: Explore Charleston, Silvercrest Asset Management Group, Atlantic Packaging, A New Earth Project, The Dewberry, and The Charleston Museum. A tremendous thanks and thunderous applause to the exhibition curator and artistic director Kelly S. Turner and everyone behind the scenes who spent countless hours making this project come to life. The birds thank you too.
welcome
MIDDLETON PLACE 4300 Ashley River Road Charleston, South Carolina 29414 Partake in a self-guided house tour of the Middleton Place House Museum and see first edition works by Mark Catesby Tuesday - Sunday | 10:00 am - 4:00 pm Monday | 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm Tickets can be purchased at the gate or online MAGNOLIA PLANTATION 3550 Ashley River Rd Charleston, SC 29414 Morning Bird Walks First Sunday of the month at 8:30 am Bird Walks in the Park Brittlebank Park 185 Lockwood Drive Charleston, SC 29403 When: Beginning January 26, 2022 | Recurring - last Wednesday of the month Accompanied by Layton Register, a local bird enthusiast THE WOODLANDS NATURE RESERVE 4279 Ashley River Road Charleston, SC 29414 Birding and Nature Walks 2-hour nature walk around the reserve | $20 Can be booked here COASTAL EXPEDITIONS Awendaw Creek Paddle and Hike Enjoy a day trip of kayaking and hiking, exploring where the land and ocean meet — Awendaw Creek — home to diverse ecosystems and a large variety of bird species. Blackwater Kayak Tour Enjoy a 5-6 hour kayak tour through the ACE Basin, which hosts a variety of bird species to be seen. THE CENTER FOR BIRDS OF PREY 4719 Highway 17N Awendaw, SC 29429 Weekly Tours and Flight Demonstrations When: Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning at 10:30 am Ticket Purchase required Birds of Prey Photography Day March 20, 2022 | April 3, 2022 “Winged Sculptures” Exhibition by Van Keuren Marshall Public Works Art Center 135 West Richardson Avenue Summerville, SC 29483 When: January 14 - February 26 2022 Forks, Knives, & Spoonbills Conservation Dinner at The Willcox in Aiken The Willcox 100 Colleton Avenue Southwest, Aiken, SC 29801 When: Dates to be announced Bird Key Stono • One of the only three Heritage Preserve coastal islands that have protected seabirds nesting • Great place to see colonies of nesting waterbirds because of its isolated nature and lack of predators When: Enjoy by boat until April 1st (closed from April 1–October 15)
Birdwatching in and Around Charleston
• American Bird Conservancy • National Audubon Society • The Center for Birds of Prey • Partners in Flight • Wild Bird Conservation Act • Charleston Parks Conservancy SOUTHEAST South Carolina — • Francis Marion National Forests • Deveaux Bank • Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center Heritage Preserve • Crab Bank Seabird Sanctuary • Donnelley Wildlife Management Area • Avian Conservation Center • Audubon Beidler Forest • Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge • The Washo Reserve • Audubon Swamp Garden at Magnolia Plantation • Silver Bluff Audubon Center & Sanctuary • The Nature Center at Sea Pines • Santee National Wildlife Refuge • Caw Caw Interpretive Center • South Carolina Coastal Bird Conservation • Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge • Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge South Carolina & Georgia — • Savannah National Wildlife Refuge Georgia— • Ichauway Plantation North Carolina— • Sylvan Heights Bird Park
Avian Conservation Sites
Artist:
J. Drew Lanham
About
ENTRANCE AT STAIR HALL
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ENTRANCE HALL
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THE DINING ROOM
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THE LIBRARY
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MUSIC ROOM
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PALLADIAN WINDOW
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THE DRAWING ROOM
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WITHDRAWING ROOM
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THE BEDROOM
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REAR STAIR
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Conservation & Killer Fashion | Collections
Throughout this exhibition, the poems of interdisciplinary author-poet-ornithologist J. Drew Lanham have been strategically inserted into vintage Audubon books. His writing uses birds to investigate the intersections between culture and conservation and in turn make wildness more relevant, accessible, and inclusive. His poems are a portal to a more fair and just way of thinking about birds and our fellow humans by encouraging readers to approach the natural world not through a field guide but rather a “feel guide.” We hope this exhibition inspires you to consider the extraordinary birds with which we share this world and imagine new possibilities where we consider birds and their habitats to ensure a future in which we coexist more harmoniously. CONSERVATION SITE FEATURE: (Of African American History, or Black Birding or anything related to African American history and conservation)
Conservation & Place & Identity
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Before binoculars and cameras with long-range lens, one way to study birds was by collecting their eggs and nests. Early conservation concerns over the impact of avian egg and nest collecting and declining species led to limiting the practice under the landmark Migratory Bird Treaty Act (1918). Collecting wild bird eggs or nests is now illegal in the United States, except for authorized scientific research. CONSERVATION SITE FEATURE: Need to add Cardi B’s Crib We acknowledge the bias when it comes to male birds specimens in natural history – as they tend to have brighter colors and livelier songs than their female counterparts. Female birds are just as deserving of our attention and admiration too. When possible, we have tried to be inclusive. Cabinet of Bird Eggs The Natural Beauty of Bird Eggs There is a natural beauty and remarkable diversity in eggshell coloration, patterning, and shapes. Ornithologists have classified egg patterns and given each style a name in order to distinguish them: splashed, blotched, spotted, dotted, marbled, streaked, scrawled, overlaid, capped, and wreathed. This cabinet is dedicated to showcasing the natural beauty of avian eggs.
Conservation & Eggs | Nests
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In the early part of the 20th century, at the height of the “plume boom,” hundreds of millions of birds-many on the brink of extinction- were killed for use in fashion. The public interest in saving and restoring bird populations led to the formation of the first Audubon conservation societies, which worked to end the use of migratory birds in fashion. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 was established to combat the overhunting and poaching of birds and is credited with saving numerous species from extinction including the snowy egret, the wood duck, and the sandhill crane. CONSERVATION SITE FEATURE: Audubon South Carolina Cutts & Bournonville Collecting eggs for study and display has been part of natural history collecting for hundreds of years, especially in the nineteenth century when oologists collected and exchanged eggs from all over the world. In the belly of the archives at The Charleston Museum sits a fascinating series of letters detailing an egg exchange between Ernest Cutts, a noted local oologist, and Didier de Bournonville, an oologist in Usumbura (since renamed Bujumbura), Burundi (Central Africa). Interested in exchanges of eggs of European shorebirds, which also occured in America, between the years of 1963 to 1965, they exchanged multiple sets. It is rare to see these African eggs. Bird-of-paradise Plumage Intended for millinery purposes. Confiscated by Customs authorities and United States game wardens 1928 The Great Auk Egg The great auk was a flightless seabird driven to extinction in the nineteenth century due to human exploitation. As the birds became steadily rare, their eggs became prized must-have possessions for collectors who paid enormous sums for just a single egg. It is impossible to place a value on them today as so few exist – only seventy-five in the world. Brisé Fan Duvelleroy Paris, 1920s Possibly Macaw feathers, most certainly - iridescent blue… The Auk Cabinet We are in the middle of a biodiversity crisis, often referred to as the Anthropocene or Sixth great extinction, species are disappearing at upwards of a thousand times the natural rate. As humans have colonized new lands, extinctions followed and have continued until today. Responding to this cataclysm, I physically cut images of missing animals from historic publications printed at the time in history when the depicted species became extinct. For example, in RIP Pied or Labrador Duck: After John James Audubon (1856/2007), the image of the birds was removed from an original 1856 Royal Octavo (hand-colored by one of Audubon’s sons), printed at the same point that the actual species disappeared. The resulting image, minus the subject, is what I refer to as a Framework of Absence. Acquired over several years, these prints, dating from 1660 to 2020, reflect the long-term and continued decline of biodiversity. The cut animal images are burned and cremation remains are gathered in funerary urns. Participants are then asked to scatter these ashes in memory of species gone in the place where the species was last seen. This action is intended as a transformative event for individuals, imprinting species loss at a personal level while encouraging the development of a conservation mindset to counter future extinctions.
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Disintegrating Birds These endangered birds — the Eastern black rail and the red-cockaded woodpecker — will sit unattended throughout the run of the exhibition. They serve as stand-ins for the countless birds that are currently at risk. Their slow disintegration speaks to what happens if we neglect artworks, architecture, or a species. Without intervention, they will disappear. CONSERVATION SITE FEATURE: Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center Heritage Preserve Maria Martin Bachman Chandelier Installation Maria Martin Bachman (1796–1863) of Charleston was a skilled watercolor painter and scientific illustrator. She was married to the Reverend John Bachman (1790–1874)— a naturalist and lifelong friend of John James Audubon. Bachman anonymously contributed to the flora and fauna that energize Audubon’s compositions in The Birds of America (1827–1838). Only recently has her contribution come to light, which inspired the chandelier installation in this room. To question and reconfigure her absence in history – the birds, plants, and butterflies were taken from the plates to which Martin contributed. The Charleston Museum holds two of the artist’s surviving sketchbooks. J. Drew Lanham's Gone Birds J. Drew Lanham The Southern Holy Trinity of Gone Birds: Carolina Parakeet, Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, and Swamp Cane Warbler 2018 Paint, wood, glue, and lots of wanting Courtesy of the Artist In J. Drew Lanham’s essay “Forever Gone,” he confronts the loss of extinction: “Some Gone Birds, as I call them, especially the ones that would’ve inhabited my Southern homeplace, have cast spells that I can’t shake.” To negotiate this absence, he surrounds himself with representations of Gone Birds as a way to see them live again, creating “a fantastical aviary” that works to “sate a desire to un-doom the wondrous loveliness.” The Southern Holy Trinity of Gone Birds typically hang in the rafters of the poet’s writing “thicket” where they are free to fly and inspire - “bound for someplace far beyond my seeing.” “Forever Gone” and its newly commissioned epilogue, “Forever Gone, or Yet Hangin On,” are transformed into a soundscape for Birdwatching. They can be experienced at Garden & Gun’s Historic Cigar Factory offices: Birdscape #2. J. Drew Lanham, A Letter to the Past. A Note to the Present. And a Request to Those Coming, 2022 Memento Mori #2 An ivory-billed woodpecker lies in silent repose with an epitaph by poet J. Drew Lanham to honor the unknown. Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Aucilla River, Florida February 1903 Collector: R. D. Hoyt Collection: Edward Von Siebold Dingle J. Drew Lanham, Ivory-Billed Woodpecker—Epitaph for the Southern Holy Trinity, 2022 CONSERVATION SITE FEATURE: Congaree National Park The Charleston Bird Lady Charleston-born artist Anne Worsham Richardson (1919–2012) was a notable naturalist and painter of birds. Known as the Charleston Bird Lady she established an avian sanctuary at her James Island home, where she rehabilitated injured birds and used them as models in her paintings. She also studied birds in the wild and consulted the bird skin collection at The Charleston Museum. Her painting of the state bird, the Carolina wren, and the state flower, the yellow jessamine - hangs in the South Carolina State House in Columbia. Maria Martin Bachman Stool This piano stool was a gift to Maria Martin Bachman from John James Audubon. 1840s. Memento Mori #3 A Bachman’s warbler lies in silent repose with an epitaph by poet J. Drew Lanham to honor the unknown. Bachman’s Warbler Mount Pleasant, SC May 15, 1901 Ornithological Journal VI 1899–1908, Bird No. 4068 Collector: Arthur T. Wayne J. Drew Lanham, Swamp Cane Warbler— Epitaph for the Southern Holy Trinity, 2022 Arthur T. Wayne Egg Case Arthur T. Wayne (1863–1930) made his living as an ornithologist by supplying bird skins to museums and private collectors. He took many of the now extinct birds in this exhibition, including the displayed Carolina parakeet and Bachman’s warbler even though they were known to be endangered and soon to be extinct. The Charleston Museum holds his ornithological journals, which note the cumulative number of birds he collected. Over six thousand can be counted. A selection of local bird eggs collected by the ornithologist Arthur T. Wayne in the early twentieth century. They are displayed in his personal wooden specimen case, which was made by Moses Smith, a local African American carpenter. Circa 1878.
The Lowcountry is a landscape rich with natural resources and habitat diversity. South Carolina enjoys a strong conservation ethos that is characterized by a passionate sense of place and a commitment to protecting both life and land. This room explores multiple, and at times conflicting, modes of avian conservation in Charleston with objects and materials either pulled or inspired by the collections and archives at The Charleston Museum. It also spotlights Lowcountry avian species and histories long-vanished. CONSERVATION SITE FEATURE: X (G&G Research; KST to Determine)
Conservation & the Lowcountry: Collections | Archives
Natural history is one of the core foundations of The Charleston Museum due to a long history of naturalists and ornithologists who recorded and collected the local flora and fauna of the Lowcountry beginning in the eighteenth-century: Mark Catesby, John James Audubon, Maria Martin Bachman, Arthur T. Wayne, Alexander Sprunt Jr., and Edward Burnham Chamberlain. They each advocated collecting avian specimen, eggs, and nests for research purposes - many of which are now either extinct or endangered. The transition from observing birds with guns and paintbrushes to cameras and binoculars to pens and poetry is highlighted in this exhibition. CONSERVATION SITE FEATURE: X (G&G Research; KST to Determine)
Conservation & the Lowcountry: Natural History
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CONSERVATION SITE FEATURE: X - Marsh Birds (G&G Research; KST to Determine)
CONSERVATION SITE FEATURE: Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge
Much of what we know about species today comes from early natural history collections. The value of avian specimen collections in documenting historical and modern patterns of biodiversity is enormous as is their role in education and public outreach.
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CONSERVATION SITE FEATURE: Charleston Parks Conservancy Gabriel E. Manigault Skeletons These avian skeleton mounts were prepared by The Charleston Museum’s nineteenth-century curator Gabriel E. Manigault (1833–1899), who specialized in comparative anatomy through the study of skeletons. He studied at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. The Museum has approximately 30 avian skeletons. When the artist John Stolle painted Manigault’s portrait he depicted him with numerous museum artifacts, including skeletons and mounts of the Carolina parakeet, painted bunting, and cardinal Bragg Boxes Laura Bragg (1881–1978) was a progressive curator who believed museums held the power to educate and uplift. She transformed the approach to museum education when she created portable self-contained exhibits to teach a variety of subjects – including natural history. Designed to bring the museum directly to children across the state, her eponymous Bragg Boxes, produced in the 1920s, display a wondrous realism that blends background scenic matte paintings, foreground habitat recreation, and taxidermy specimens. Bragg was also the first woman in the country to be named director of a public museum when she accepted the role at The Charleston Museum in 1920.
Conservation & Research and Education
South Carolina’s Santee Delta sits between Charleston and Georgetown. It is both a sportsman’s and a conservationist’s paradise. Once the heart of Carolina rice country, the land is rich with natural and cultural resources. The historic rice field impoundments, built by enslaved labor, are priceless environments for migratory waterfowl, marsh birds, and other birds that annually utilize the Atlantic Flyway. This Game Table engages the bountiful avian and historical cultural resources of the Santee Delta to tell a story of place. Bobolinks share the table with iconic Santee Delta ducks while sitting on recently restored heirloom Carolina Gold Rice. A kettle of hawks and other raptors, sit and wait. Sepia Fitzhugh porcelain pieces from the Manigault family service, exported from China, are also on display with a crest that bears a shield, with three hawks and a moon, and a motto that translates to “It is better to anticipate than avenge.” Words of wisdom for conserving avian life and land.
CONSERVATION SITE FEATURE: Avian Conservation Center: The Center for Birds of Prey; the Santee Delta Wildlife Management Area; Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center; Francis Marion National Forest; Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge. A Collection of Santee Delta Ducks from Jimmy Hortman Taxidermy A special thank you to taxidermy artist Jimmy Hortman for loaning his blue-ribbon ducks for Birdwatching Heirloom Carolina Gold Rice A special thank you to Brian Ward at the Clemson Coastal Research and Education Center and Carolina Gold Rice Foundation for the Carolina Gold Rice seen on this Game Table
Conservation & Birds of Prey | Santee Delta Ducks & Rice
Conservation & Shorebirds
Audubon in Charleston There is a deep connection between Charleston and John James Audubon. He spent a significant amount of time in the Lowcountry, so much so that in the 1830s he considered the city his second home. Audubon also painted many of his famous scenes here. His image of the long-billed curlew features Charleston’s iconic skyline as the backdrop—with recognizable waterfront buildings, churches, and Fort Sumter. It is one of the few paintings that contain a complete cityscape. Both the Charleston Museum and the College of Charleston hold “double elephant” versions of The Birds of America in their collections. Only 120 complete sets are known to exist. CONSERVATION SITE FEATURE: There are many coastal bird conservation and stewardship programs in the state: Deveaux Bank, Crab Bank, ADD Audubon documented his experience behind the painting in his account of the Long-billed curlew species. To read it: GG Insert JJA TBOA Plate 231 text https://www.audubon.org/birds-of-america/long-billed-curlew
This exhibition coincides with the anniversary of the passing of Incas— the last captive Carolina parakeet— who died alone on February 21, 1918. He lost his mate, Lady Jane, a year earlier. Almost immediately after he died, Incas was forgotten. His body was supposed to go to the Smithsonian Institution, but it never arrived. He is forever gone, like the rest of his kind.
Conservation & Extinction
CONSERVATION SITE FEATURE: ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge Memento Mori #1 A Carolina parakeet lies in silent repose with an epitaph by poet J. Drew Lanham to honor the unknown. Carolina Parakeet Lake Locke, Florida Nov 5, 1892 Ornithological Journal IV 1892–1895, Bird No. 2841 Collector: Arthur T. Wayne J. Drew Lanham, Carolina Parakeet—Epitaph for the Southern Holy Trinity, 2022 Carolina Parakeet Chandelier Installation Valmont & Cie, 2022 Ghost Songs is a curated soundscape featuring a wonderfully melodic mix of cackles, clucks, whistles, hoots, songs, and sounds of fifty Southeastern birds. It celebrates the incredible diversity of Charleston’s avian population and gives voice to several extinct, endangered and elusive birds. Starting 4:00 p.m. each afternoon, the soundscape will change from day to night with diurnal bird songs disappearing and nocturnal birds sounding for one hour.
rooms
joseph manigault house, Charleston Museum
Brandon Ballengée RIP Great Auk: After Theodore Jasper, 1881/2015 Artist cut and burnt chromolithographic print by Theodore Jasper published in 1881, etched glass funerary urn and ashes // Species last observed in 1844 Brandon Ballengée RIP Great Auk: After Frederick W. Frohawk, 1889/2018 Artist cut and burnt chromolithographic, etched glass funerary urn and ashes // Species last observed in 1844 Jimmy Hortman Wood Duck Plantation near Charleston, Santee River, 2017 Jimmy Hortman Northern Pintail Outer Banks, 2019 Jimmy Hortman American Black Duck Plantation near Charleston, Santee River, 2019 Jimmy Hortman Mallard Plantation near Charleston, Santee River, 2019 Jimmy Hortman Northern Shovler Ace Basin, 2019 Jimmy Hortman Green-Winged Teal Plantation near Charleston, Santee River, 2020 Jimmy Hortman Blue-Winged Teal Plantation near Charleston, Santee River, 2020 J. Drew Lanham Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts 2021 Audio 1:07 Courtesy of the Artist “Poems” Included: “Considering Birds” “Wood Thrush” “Murmuration” “Sparrow Envy” “Field Mark 8 — Necessary Greed” “Octoroon Warbler” “No Murder of Crows” “Thrush Lust” “Ictarid Indecision” “Lifeless List” “Luv” “Field Mark 25 — Dum Spiro Spero” “Field Mark 6 — Love Handle” “Sound Thinking” “On Finding Swamp Religion” “Soulful Warming” “Covey of One” “Field Mark 5 — How Not to Watch Birds” “Bohicket Road Ramble — Flash Fry Gentrify” “Field Mark 1 — Love for a Song” “Field Mark 17 — Good Enough” “Nine Rules for the Black Birder” “How to Adore Birds” “Group Think — The New Names for Plural Birds” “Field Mark 2 — Awegasm” Birds featured were selected by Artist
Dear Viewer, You have just stepped into an imaginary aviary. It is a fantastical birdscape (House & Habitat) envisioned as a bird takeover of the Joseph Manigault House to spatialize the coexistence of humans and birds. Visitors are invited on an immersive journey that evokes the wonder of nineteenth-century artist-naturalists’ cabinets of curiosity and unravels expectations of the natural world, stripping away notions of hierarchy and asking us to question what we see and hear. This exhibition is the result of more than a year spent combing through the Charleston Museum’s extensive collections and archives in search of both inspiration and objects. Specifically, the ornithological collections that patiently wait behind closed doors for researchers, historians, and artists to visit. Composed of more than fifteen thousand specimens—an impressive collection that zigzags with possibilities—it inspired the desire to free objects, birds, and histories from drawers, cabinets, boxes, and vitrines. Bringing together an ensemble of rarely seen avian study skins, taxidermy mounts, skeletons, eggs, and nests, alongside other objects, artifacts, and archival material, this birdscape features unique vignettes, juxtapositions, and installations to create a strange mix of wonder and loss. This exhibition also explores the history of avian conservation in Charleston—a history that is characterized by a strong sense of place and a commitment to protecting both life and land. It also considers the role of natural history collections in the Lowcountry and the naturalists and ornithologists who inspired or started them, including John James Audubon, whose iconic The Birds of America (1827-1838) changed the way we see, study, and appreciate avian life. His illustrations of native bird species in their natural environments continue to fascinate with their ability to capture the individuality of each bird in life-size, visually arresting, and cinematic detail. In reimagining Audubon’s groundbreaking achievement, installations featuring birds cut from their natural habitats can be seen roaming, sauntering, or perching in unexpected places, all in conjunction with an avian soundscape that inspires visitors to consider the extraordinary birds with which we share this city. This exhibition also engages Audubon’s (and other famed naturalists’) association with enslavement through the writing of J. Drew Lanham. Visitors can contemplate the intersection of race, place, and avian conservation through Lanham’s Sparrow Envy: A Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts, which has been transformed into a soundscape for Birdwatching. Staged in the classical Gate Temple within the gardens of the Joseph Manigault House, this installation lets Lanham’s voice find freedom in flight to create an experience of unexpected spoken-word poetry and displaced bird songs. Twenty-five of Lanham’s poems are featured in concert with avian voices from Southern bottomland hardwood forests. Kelly S. Turner, Curator and Artistic Director, 2022 Sincere gratitude to Charleston Museum curators Matthew Gibson, Jennifer McCormick, and Virginia Theerman, who graciously opened their collections without reservation, and, in turn, the world of objects and histories found throughout this exhibition.
House & Habitat
Birdscape #1
The Atlantic Flyway is a major bird migration route in North America. Each spring, millions of birds migrate through the Southeast on this avian highway, and South Carolina is a critical stop due to its rich and biologically diverse habitats. Celebrating the avian spectacles that grace our skies, marshes, rivers, beaches, forests, and cities each year, this unique experience at The Dewberry invites viewers to contemplate one of nature’s great wonders over cocktails that are works of art. Inspired by the majesty of the colorful birds in our midst, When Cocktails Become Art takes guests on an artistic flight to witness three exceptional species: the painted bunting with its unrivaled feathered fusions, the ruby-throated hummingbird with its jewel-like flashes, and the iridescent, flamboyantly pink roseate spoonbill. Avian appreciators of all levels—from those still in search of their “spark” bird to avid birders chasing rarities or adding new species to their life list—will enjoy witnessing the larger-than-life wood stork topiary taking up residence in The Dewberry Living Room. Thanks to vigilant environmental stewardship, the wood stork is one of the great ecological success stories of the last century. This art installation, commissioned as an homage to avian conservation, will be without a doubt one of the more spectacular bird sightings in Charleston this spring. Kelly S. Turner, Curator and Artistic Director, 2022
Birdscape #2
Travel & Migration
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Art Credits: When Cocktails Become Art & North American Wood Stork Topiary, 2022 Curated and Artistically Directed by Kelly S. Turner in conjunction with Garden & Gun, Gathering Floral & Events, and The Dewberry.
earth deities
MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE
VANISHING
Frameworks of Absence
RIP Carolina Parakeet
BRANDON BALLENGEE
ARTISTS
The interior and exterior installations at Garden & Gun’s Cigar Factory offices return extinct or “lost” birds to Charleston, South Carolina. Merging art, architecture, and sound, this group exhibition brings together three contemporary artists, Brandon Ballengée, Clare Celeste Börsch, and J. Drew Lanham, to draw attention to avian species and histories long-vanished. This exhibition opens at a time when we are reevaluating our connection to nature, grappling with avian extinction as birds vanish from our landscapes, waterways, and skies as the result of human impact on their habitats. It also coincides with the anniversary of the passing of Incas (the last captive Carolina parakeet, who died within a year of his companion, Lady Jane, on February 21, 1918), and the sobering acknowledgement in 2021 that the ivory-billed woodpecker and the Bachman’s warbler are no longer rare, but non-existent. The gallery features two artists who use paper to explore avian loss through approaches that evoke an interplay between absence and presence. Fifteen artworks and urns from Brandon Ballengée’s ongoing Frameworks of Absence series, including the newly commissioned RIP Carolina Parakeet: After John James Audubon, give visual form to avian extinction through visual erasure. Enacting the rituals of mourning, the artist physically excises images of lost birds from historic illustrations, leaving a negative space, then burns them to simulate the act of cremation. Conversely, in two visually arresting installations, artist Clare Celeste Börsch hand-cuts species out of paper and meticulously arranges them into fragile ecosystems teeming with extinct birds and native Southeastern flora and fauna. Her “Earth Deities” and large-scale installation, Making the Invisible Visible, evoke the once-abundant and currently diminishing native biodiversity of the Lowcountry. On the exterior of the gallery, J. Drew Lanham’s powerful, poignant piece, “Forever Gone,” and its newly commissioned epilogue, “Forever Gone, and Yet Hangin On” are transformed into a soundscape featuring parrots, owls, warblers, cuckoos, woodpeckers, and ghost birds. Oscillating between absence and loss, flight and freedom, Lanham reflects on how bird lives and Black lives intertwine within the story of the Carolina Parakeet, drawing parallels between how we treat nature and our fellow humans. Additionally, each night the smokestack outside the Cigar Factory will transform into a visual beacon of avian extinction with Vanish, a projection by Clare Celeste Börsch that is at once a celebration of the beauty of South Carolina’s native birds and a cautious visual reminder as to what is at stake if birds continue to disappear. Kelly S. Turner, Curator and Artistic Director, 2022
Earth Deities are three modern-day interpretations of the earth or fertility goddess. Known by many names, she is an archetype associated with abundance, creation, and the force of nature. In this rendition, the central fauna are three South Carolina bird species that have gone extinct due to human activity: the Carolina Parakeet, Ivory bill woodpecker, and Bachman warbler center. Rather than creating a somber or melancholy tribute to these vanished beauties, these works celebrate and exalt them. They are defiantly triumphant. They remind us of both the power of nature and the irreplaceable biodiversity we are losing due to unchecked consumption and reckless land development. In the wake of wildfires, heatwaves, floods, accelerating habitat loss, and mass extinction, these artworks call the wisdom of these ancient deities into our modern world. I imagine they would offer a stark warning: If we want to avoid planetary collapse, we must remember we are part of nature, not separate from it. We are not masters of nature, but rather kin. We are all part of, entangled in, and inextricably connected to the larger web of life. Our survival demands we wake up from this false sense of separation and remember that our fate is intertwined with those of the ecosystems we are ravaging. These Earth Deities offer a reawakening of our kinship with nature, and a return to life.
Making the Invisible Visible features four species of birds—the passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet, ivory-billed woodpecker, and the Bachman warbler—that have all gone extinct since the colonization of North America. Tucked amid these birds are other species, such as the blue jay, that still grace our skies. The abundant biodiversity of the paper chandelier evokes visions of a precolonial era, teeming with native flora and fauna, some of which are lost to us forever. My intention is to remind viewers of what biodiversity and abundance was here before us, and what will be lost if we continue to destroy native habitats. In evoking this landscape, I hope to remind viewers of different way of living with the land. The Western view of “virgin” forest is misleading, as Native tribes have lived on Turtle Island for thousands of years. It was not untouched nature, but loved and tended nature. Biodiversity flourished because of a worldview that revered and respected the interconnectedness of our living earth. In this hidden landscape, the sacred is everywhere, orienting humans differently within the tapestry of living beings. It is urgent that we imagine new ways of being that look to, revere, and emulate indigenous wisdom. In a decisive decade for our planet, with so much at risk of being lost, this artwork asks us to ground our actions in their worldview. “It is time to remember terra madre to embrace every being on this planet as part of us kith (land) and kin (family) and to remember where we belong.” - Vandana Shiva "We need to have a whole cultural shift, where it becomes our culture to take care of the Earth, and in order to make this shift, we need storytelling about how the Earth takes care of us and how we can take care of her." - Xiya Bastida "We must also recognize that climate change is only one symptom of a larger problem. Human beings have fallen out of alignment with life." - Sherri Mitchell, Weh'na Ha'mu Kwasset
Vanishing is a video artwork that features extinct and nonextinct species of native South Carolina birds. This work is at once a celebration of their beauty and a stark warning of what could be lost if the development continues without regard for the natural world. In the animation, the species already lost to human activity vanish first, but as the video continues, other still-living species vanish as well, with branches becoming more and more bare until only the small hummingbird remains. As the video progresses, the birds reappear and the cycle begins once again. Vanishing is presented as a loop to evoke the circular sense of time, and to recall both degradation and regeneration. While the species we have lost are lost forever, nature is resilient and regenerative, and possibilities remain to nurture and help the earth heal. “Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.” - Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants “We need acts of restoration, not only for polluted waters and degraded lands, but also for our relationship to the world. We need to restore honor to the way we live, so that when we walk through the world we don’t have to avert our eyes with shame, so that we can hold our heads up high and receive the respectful acknowledgment of the rest of the earth’s beings.” - Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
We are in the middle of a biodiversity crisis, often referred to as the Anthropocene or Sixth great extinction, species are disappearing at upwards of a thousand times the natural rate. As humans have colonized new lands, extinctions followed and have continued until today. Responding to this cataclysm, I physically cut images of missing animals from historic publications printed at the time in history when the depicted species became extinct. For example, in RIP Pied or Labrador Duck: After John James Audubon (1856/2007), the image of the birds was removed from an original 1856 Royal Octavo (hand-colored by one of Audubon’s sons), printed at the same point that the actual species disappeared. The resulting image, minus the subject, is what I refer to as a Framework of Absence.
(+ 2 videos and digital Book of the Dead pdf ) Articulate with cutting Frameworks https://www.pbs.org/video/nature-art-n719nc/ "Death Makes Angels" slideshow of burning depictions to be shown with Frameworks https://www.dropbox.com/s/79h8hzjqm6wlgc2/death%20makes%20angels-HD%20%28720p%29.m4v?dl=0 BOOK OF THE DEAD
We stand guard over works of art, but species representing the work of aeons are stolen from under our noses. –Aldo Leopold Life, though complicated, messy, fragile, and quickly dwindling, is the most exceptional form of poetry. Biodiversity is nature’s art. What will become of this art as we continue to extinguish life in the name of monetary growth? The Carolina parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) was emblematic of the special nature of North America. Prior to the nineteenth century, loud, colorful flocks of parakeets could be seen over an extensive range that spanned from Florida to as far west as Colorado and as far north as southern Ontario. By the early nineteenth century, the species became rare due to immense habitat loss, overhunting for food, sport, and the plumage trade, and perhaps poultry disease. Additionally, because the species was social, it was easily killed. As Audubon noted in 1832, “The gun is kept busy, with eight, ten or even twenty being killed at each discharge. As if conscious of the deaths of their companions, the living birds sweep over the bodies, screaming loudly as ever…I have seen several hundred destroyed in this manner in a few hours […]” The last captive Carolina parakeet died at the Cincinnati Zoo on February 21, 1918. A small flock of wild parakeets was reported in South Carolina’s Santee River basin in 1938, but sadly this area of forest was cleared shortly thereafter, and the birds were never seen again. A year later they were officially declared extinct by the American Ornithologist’sUnion. The Carolina Parakeet continues to be a symbol of lost greatness and an impetus for the protection of other species through careful conservation. About RIP Carolina Parakeet: After John James Audubon The RIP Carolina Parakeet: After John James Audubon artwork was created from an artist-cut and burnt historic offset lithograph, “Carolina Parrot (Psitacus Carolinensis), No. 6, Plate, 26,” drawn from nature by John James Audubon for the limited Amsterdam edition of Birds of America, published by Johnson and Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1971. The artwork is framed in a period-inspired gold-leaf frame with a silk mat, presented alongside an etched glass funerary urn containing the ashes of the burnt Carolina Parakeet image.
Community & Flocks
Birdscape #3
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