The Rooftop Flyers. June 2016 . Submittal to the 14x48 Campaign to repurpose vacant billboards in New York City
This illustration draws inspiration from the subculture of rooftop pigeon herders in New York. Two summers ago, I was working with a few artists and we were hanging out on their rooftop in Brooklyn, when around 5pm, we witnessed a swarm of pigeons fly out from a rooftop in what looked like a well-studied choreography. The oldest artist, who has lived in NY all his life, explained to us that this was a game that the residents in the area played. They inherited this tradition from European immigrants and appropriated it in Brooklyn.
“Pigeons are social animals”, the artist explained. The owners who lose their pigeons to their neighbors’ flocks will later have to pay a sum to get them back. It was a nice evening in Brooklyn and it was quite calming for us to see the pigeons fly out from each rooftop and eventually group with each other.
With summer, the season of rooftop gatherings is upon us. And with it the tradition of pigeon-herding. However, with the city expanding and the number of high-rise buildings soaring, I wonder what impact this may have on this age-old cherished tradition above ground, and what it ultimately means in the context of human-scale interactions, the animals and nature that have to co-habit.
About the 14x48 Campaign
14x48 repurposes vacant billboards as public art space in order to create more opportunities in public art for emerging artists, to challenge emerging artists to engage more with public art, and to enliven the vibrancy of our urban environment.