Zhan Wang

Bird trap 1995

This work is a transposition for childhood toys. This kind of bird trap consists of putting rice under a basin with a wooden stick supporting it up. Once birds come into this small space to eat rice, people by pulling a thread linked to the wooden stick will trap the birds inside the basin. In my work, rice is replaced with a book on birds, and the thread is pulled by birds and not by people. When people want to read the book on birds, the birds being frightened, they will pull the thread thus trapping the people inside. In this case the basin has been substituted with a net.