Dalziel + Scullion

Dundee Birds 2018

On two sets of billboards, a selection of 36 birds that live locally to the city of Dundee, are represented by their eggs. The design and engineering of the eggs is dazzling, but so too is the potent knowledge that they contain the ingredients to conjure flight. This can only happen of course in an environment that allows the careful attention of prospective parents to nurture the fledglings into existence and to join the collective community of birds. As such the egg is both a universal symbol of immense potential, but also of fragile vulnerability.

The eggs depicted in this project are from the archives of the Natural History Unit at Perth Museum. Taking eggs from live nests was rightly made illegal in 1954, but not until custodial sentences were imposed in 2001 did the practice significantly decrease. As a result, many of the eggs photographed here are significantly old, some taken before the First World War, others during it.

Dundee Birds was commissioned for the Sharing Not Hoarding project, a satellite to the city centre’s emerging Waterside Development