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Sheila Berg­er’s BIRD MMXXI­II Sculp­ture Debuts in Ham­mock Grove

Nov 2, 2023 12:26 pm

Gov­er­nors Island Arts announced today the arrival of artist Sheila Berger’s Bird MMXXI­II sculp­ture to the Island. BIRD MMXXI­II is locat­ed at the south­ern edge of Ham­mock Grove and will be on dis­play dai­ly start­ing Thurs­day, Novem­ber 2, 2023. Berger’s sculp­ture joins a wide array of ongo­ing artis­tic dis­plays and pro­gram­ming on the Island, includ­ing the renowned Artists in Res­i­dence program. 

“We are excit­ed to wel­come Sheila Berger’s Bird MMXXI­II sculp­ture to live among our art-filled Island,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“As we con­tin­ue to expand our range of pub­lic art dis­plays on the Island, we are simul­ta­ne­ous­ly expand­ing pub­lic access to estab­lished and bur­geon­ing artists, cre­at­ing an artis­tic hub and plat­form for artists to widen their pub­lic reach and have an artis­tic safe space to cre­ate and exhibit.”

“My birds are not the rap­tors of the sky, but a com­bi­na­tion of the small and the ordi­nary. They remind us that we share this plan­et with oth­er crea­tures that are not less­er than us, just dif­fer­ent,” said artist Sheila Berg­er. ​“By tap­ping into that, we leave our self-cen­tered­ness and expe­ri­ence the won­der­ment of what it is to be alive.”

Bird MMXXI­II is a bird made of stain­less steel that is sit­u­at­ed on a plinth as an ode to hero­ic Roman sculp­ture. The bird has a mir­rored bel­ly and crown allow­ing it to reflect, lit­er­al­ly and sym­bol­i­cal­ly, the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty, a sculp­ture which has wel­comed and ele­vat­ed immi­grants since its instal­la­tion. The mir­rored sur­face of the sculp­ture allows vis­i­tors to view them­selves against the back­drop of the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment of the Island, encour­ag­ing reflec­tion and relaxation. 

The artist, Sheila Berg­er, is a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary artist (encaus­tic paint­ing, sculp­ture, ceram­ics, and artist books) whose works have been rep­re­sent­ed by Paul Kas­min Gallery, Nicole Klags­brun Gallery, and appear in muse­ums and col­lec­tions through­out the world. Her first works, ​“Avis Glo­ri­ae et Lavdis” and ​“Nature Eter­nal,” were dis­played on River­side Park South in Man­hat­tan. She now has works across the coun­try. A dri­ving force for her cre­ation of pub­lic art is being able to reach view­ers of all races, gen­ders, ages, and socio-eco­nom­ic back­grounds. Build­ing works out­side has made Berg­er acute­ly aware of her respon­si­bil­i­ty towards the plan­et, with a height­ened aware­ness of the impact of sculp­ture on nature, she strives to bring aware­ness and enhance her nat­ur­al sur­round­ings rather than dis­rupt them.