Natural History vs Artificial modernity
Could the antithesis of natural history be considered artificial modernity? In this exhibition, Taylor Moon Castagnari recreated the antique prints of John James Audubon as modern-day digital illustrations. She explores themes of deforestation, loss of habitat, lead poisoning in birds, plasticosis (or ingestion of plastics), ocean and air pollution, technological mediation, and industrial run-off’s impact on nature.
Across her digital illustrations, Moon uses contemporary aesthetics of filters and pixel art. She considers how the process of interacting with and documenting nature has changed with technology, namely with the advent of the iPad, camera, and smartphone. Moon borrows from the aesthetics of contemporary toys and products on the market, such as legos, collectibles, and stuffed animals. She imitates filters and pixel art. She juxtaposes the natural backgrounds of the historic prints with that of the modern urban environment or the state of the given bird’s current habitat. While Moon critiques human impact on nature, she also highlights the resilience and beauty of nature to adapt to change and modernization.
GRANGE INSURANCE CENTER
SOLO EXHIBITION OF THE NATURAL HISTORY VS ARTIFICIAL MODERNITY
Lego Block Eagle
Taylor Moon Castagnari
Digital Illustration Printed on Metal
Moon digitally illustrates the Bald Eagle, which has been a symbol of American identity as the national bird, in the form of a lego statue. While the present day legos are free from lead, vintage legos can contain lead, arsenic and cadmium. As of 2022, researchers discovered that 46% of bald eagles had chronic lead poisoning. The bald eagle ingests parts of lead bullet fragments used in hunting. Lead devastates the eagle’s nervous system and can cause seizures, brain damage, weakness, anemia, organ failure, and even death. The lego is also symbolic of building, creation, and construction. The bald eagle was considered critically endangered in the mid-1900s due to habitat destruction and degradation. Thus, the lego seems to be a suitable medium to portray the bald eagle, as human development and building was a primary cause of the bird’s severe population loss.
Pixelated Bird Watching
Taylor Moon Castagnari
Digital Illustration Printed on Metal
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Considering how the experience of bird watching and engaging with nature has changed through technological medication, Moon created a contemporary portrait of the American condor. Incorporating pop culture aesthetics, she renders the condor as pixel art. All it takes is a brief Internet search to witness a bird up-close. It creates a distortion of reality, or the impression of having an intimate knowledge of a creature without ever actually encountering it. Moreover, because the subject, the California Condor, is critically endangered, pixelated documentation will be all that will remain of the vulture if no intervention is taken.
This work is derived from the original natural history print by John James Audubon watercolor of the California Vulture.
Plasticosis
Taylor Moon Castagnari
Digital Illustration Printed on Metal
The manx shearwater is one of the bird species with the highest level of plastic ingestion. Millions of tons of plastic enter the ocean each year. Seabirds also become entangled in floating plastic, threatening their lives. The term “plasticosis” refers to damage to seabirds’ stomachs as they ingest plastic waste in the ocean.
NATURAL HABITAT
Taylor Moon Castagnari
Digital Illustration Printed on Metal
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Due to modernization, the landscapes in which early naturalists recorded birds differ from the environments in which those same bird species live today. In Moon’s digital artwork, Natural Habitat, she illustrates a Barbet atop a utility pole. This work directly commentates on how deforestation has had a deleterious effect on the Barbet species. This work is derived from the original natural history print by Francois Nicolas Martinet of the Barbu, de Maynas [Barbet], wherein, the same bird is seen atop a tree.
Don't Feed the Birds
Taylor Moon Castagnari
Digital Illustration Printed on Metal
Feeding birds creates artificially high populations that cannot be supported by their natural habitats and causes disruption within the food chains. Moreover, feeding birds results in pollution, the spread of disease, and delayed migration. Birds, like humans, can also be prone to obesity. The concept of the ballooning, or bloated stomach, led me to illustrate the Summer Tanager as an inflatable balloon. This also creates a pop-art effect. Red is a color that stimulates the senses, including those directly tied with one's appetite. Thus, it is frequently seen in the branding of fast food establishments. Red is also associated with warnings for its ability to grab attention.
Avante-aves
Taylor Moon Castagnari
Digital Illustration Printed on Metal
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Prior to the invention of the camera, journaling, plein air painting and outdoor illustration were the primary means of documenting nature. Creating a contemporary parallel with the former practice, Moon portrays an iPad housing her illustration, complete with a drawing software application and stylus. While using animal patterns is nothing new to popular culture, Moon wanted to emphasize how animal likenesses are being commercialized in the modern age. She simplifies the idea of the tufted cormorant into an art deco wallpaper pattern.
Pet Plushies
Taylor Moon Castagnari
Digital Illustration Printed on Metal
Adding a pop-art twist to an antique owl print, Moon illustrates an owl-shaped pillow and a collectible owl action figure. Both of these products are inspired by contemporary toys and merchandise. These toys point to the human desire to own, subdue, and collect both things and animals. Though the toy bears the likeness of a lovable animal, mass toy production, itself, has detrimental impacts on the global environment and the animals that inhabit it. Packaging of consumerist goods has a short ‘in-use’ life span. Billions of tons of trash have been generated over the past decades.
Bird Filter
Taylor Moon Castagnari
Digital Illustration Printed on Metal
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The advent of social media filters has altered our understanding of the true physical context of a subject in relation to the edited or artificially augmented environment, enabling one to choose the reality one prefers. In the illustration, Bird Filter, Moon depicted a Kingfisher with various filter gallery selections applied to it. The filters were given names, such as “Industrial Pollution,” “Car Window Collision,” “Agricultural Run-Off,” “River Contamination,” “Global Warming,” and “Human Disturbance,” as these are each variables that cause Kingfisher deaths.
changes in the wetlands
Taylor Moon Castagnari
Digital Illustration Printed on Metal
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The rusty blackbird has declined by over 80% in recent decades due to habitat loss and fragmentation of the bird’s breeding and winter grounds. The swamps that the rusty blackbird frequents during winter have significantly decreased in size. The rusty blackbird makes its summer migration to the spruce bogs of Alaska and northern Canada, as it heavily relies upon the shallowly flooded boreal wetlands while breeding and rearing their young. Climate change renders these bogs prone to drying, threatening the species’ habitat, food sources, and breeding capabilities. In Moon’s digital illustration, Changes in the Wetlands, she depicts a map of how the rusty blackbird species’ geographical range will diminish as temperatures rise. Moon draws inspiration for her artwork from the popular video game, Angry Birds. In her depiction, the rusty blackbird is portrayed as a bird filled with rage, seething at its vulnerability to the effects of climate change.
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Birdie is feeling sick
Taylor Moon Castagnari
Digital Illustration Printed on Metal
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Social media accounts enable users to post statuses regarding their moods with correspondent emojis. In this digital illustration, a bird posted about feeling sick due to contaminated water. Moon drew reference from the contemporary bird emoji and the queasy emoji. Bird baths facilitate birds’ hydration and preening needs. These baths allow birds to cool their body temperatures while removing dust, loose feathers, and parasites from their plumage. However, bird baths can also be vectors for disease if not properly cleaned and maintained. These water sources can become breeding grounds for bacteria and illnesses. Some common illnesses resulting from contaminated water sources include Salmonellosis, Trichomoniasis, Avian Pox, Conjunctivitis, and Aspergillosis. Birds are inclined to let their guard down when bathing, rendering them vulnerable to predators. Thus, bird baths have both their benefits and hazards to bird health.
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cIGARETTE BUD NEST
Taylor Moon Castagnari
Digital Illustration Printed on Metal
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Nicotine is a natural repellant for insects and parasites. Birds have adapted to utilizing cigarette buds in their nests to deter unwanted mites. Despite the fact that cigarettes are considered detrimental to the environment and harmful to humans, they can be helpful to birds in keeping pests away from their nests. While much of the human footprint has come at a cost to wildlife, the birds’ innovative use of the cigarette’s natural insecticide properties is proof of nature’s resilience.
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