Until primatologist Jane Goodall discovered that chimpanzees use sticks to fish out termites, Western thinkers believed that humans were the only animals to employ tools, and often invoked its usage as a means to separate themselves from other animals. Since that time, it has been found that it is rather common for animals to use tools, something which is particularly well documented in primates and birds.
Community Toolshed for the Birds is a wooden structure containing a variety of tools that birds have been observed using for various purposes, from foraging for food and scratching themselves to playing and hooking to cracking things open. These tools include bits of bark, strips of newspaper, feathers, thistles, paper clips, plastic twist ties, sticks, twigs, stones, bread, fire, insects, leaves, thorns, mirrors and more. Birds not only use and fabricate tools, but they also share this knowledge with one another, often allowing for tools to be improved over generations.
Community Toolshed for the Birds is designed to function as a tool library. Like other community libraries, it allows patrons to borrow its contents free of charge and then replace them so that they may be used by another patron at a later date. The piece is part of a series of works by Ibghy and Lemmens that challenges common assumptions humans have regarding animal intelligence, as well as a whimsical yet practical example of ways to improve interspecies cohabitation.
Community Toolshed for the Birds, 2021. Materials: wood, plywood, feathers, stones, thread, cat and dog hair, plastic (ping-pong ball, clothes pin, etc.), metal (nails, chain, paper clips, fish hooks), dried organic materials (dried insects, peach pit, bread, cat food, moss, bark, leaves, twigs and other parts of plants), paper and ink. Dimensions: 72 ¾ x 28 x 23 ½ inches. Installation view, Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, USA.
Exhibition
Community Toolshed for the Birds (2021)
