The Birds. What image comes to your mind when you hear those words? The Birds. Are you picturing gleeful little chickadees flying in and out of your birdhouse? Are you conjuring up the coo of happy to be homing doves?

Or, like me, are you still haunted by memories of the Alfred Hitchcock movie. It turns out that there was great wisdom in Mum’s advice. “Don’t sneak out of bed and watch TV while we’re entertaining downstairs.” Wisdom ignored, Hitchcock Birds watched on the sly, childhood brain scarred.

“Norman. Elizabeth says she doesn’t want a birthday party this year. Why don’t you want a birthday party this year?”

Artist Myfanwy MacLeod watched The Birds too. Multiple times. And, in her own wry way, brought Hitchcock’s creepy and nature’s beauty together in a pair of 4.5 metre sparrows perched at Olympic Village.

Installed in April of 2010, these King-Kong figurine birds tower over the buildings in the distance and the people below. “I think it boils down to wanting to make something sublime for the plaza,” says MacLeod. “That is, something beautiful, but frightening at the same time.”

‘They’re amassing out there someplace and they’ll be back. You can count on it.’

Written by Elizabeth Newton
www.creatorsvancouver.com