![Bronze sculpture made up of many small birds that form the shape of the larger flying bird with wings spread. Bronze sculpture shown on white background](http://borsheimarts.com/cdn/shop/files/Singulart_Borsheim_Murmuration-SculptureBronzeFlockOfBirds-FoundryBase_20230525_N019_{width}x.jpg?v=1687197238)
- Bronze Tabletop Sculpture with black marble base
- 17.5 h x 10.5 w x 3 d inches (bronze bird only)
20 h x 10.5 x 4 in incl. base from foundry - One-of-a-Kind artwork
- $1500 ~ SOLD
- Corporate Collection, Spain
Murmuration ~ Birds in Flight
© Kelly Borsheim
The inspiration:
Birds are fascinating with so many different behaviours among their populations. Murmuration was a new word for me. It describes how starling birds (usually) make these lyrical flights as a group, morphing the overall shape of the group as they fly this way and that in a musical, fluid type of motion.
Seeing these masses of dark birds moving in flight in this way brings so many questions to mind. A few are: How do they know? Do they practice as I did in the marching band for the half-time performance of a football game? Which one is the leader? What is the reason they fly around in this way? Is this a form of communication? If so, with whom?
I created this sculpture in wax, shaping each individual small bird in wax. I used a hot metal tool to melt the wax after I shaped each triangle, giving a wonderful fluid texture to the surface of the small birds.
At the beginning, I knew that I wanted to play with the idea of the smaller shapes creating the larger one, work with triangles, and that the negative spaces between the birds would remain as open air. I envisioned that once I got the two layers of birds cast into metal, I could then (hopefully) bend the flat bird into a shape that was more three-dimensional.
I had even started to design the corresponding base to it, but that has not yet been realized.
Unsure of physically how to join the individual birds without destroying the composition, I set this work aside for other endeavors.
Finally in 2019, I decided that enough was enough. I would not be able to preserve this work in wax and it was best for me to bring it to a bronze foundry and hope that they had technicians with the skill and patience to weld the wax pieces together long enough to get the piece changed into bronze.
Thus, no mold was make of this artwork. I suppose that I could make one from the bronze, but have not done so. The foundry not only cast the piece (and did a beautiful job of it!), but they added the black square rod and granite base. I may or may not change that in the future, but for now, the idea of so many years ago has been realized. I feel grateful for this!