The Bird and the Cup

The Bird and the Cup, 2014
Performance

“The Bird and the Cup”, a lecture-performance, was written and performed in collaboration with Annie Mac Donell. Commissioned by CONTACT 2014 .

“The Bird and The Cup” mines the library’s Picture Collection to illustrate a shape-shifting narrative winding through two separate spaces: the Toronto Reference Library and Robarts Research Library. These two iconic buildings, and the Picture Collection itself, become a pretext for MacDonell and Fortuné to explore the relationship between image and text, illustration and description, as well as the possibilities and limitations of architecture in public life. It was performed at the library on May 31st, 2014.

The text, in three parts, was delivered in alternation by MacDonell and Fortuné, accompanied by a live image presentation/projection. The text and images have now been compiled into a book, published in May of 2015, by the same title.

The Bird & the Cup performance is an artist’s book produced by Annie MacDonell and Maïder Fortuné, and commissioned by the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival. It was launched in May of 2015 and is available through Art Metropole

Description from the book jacket: This book brings together the text and images from a performance titled “The Bird and the Cup”. It was produced by Annie MacDonell and Maïder Fortuné, and performed on May 31st, 2014 at the Toronto Reference Library. MacDonell and Fortuné took turns reading the text while arranging groups of images on a table between them. A document camera was used to film and project the images above them for the audience to see. All the images used in the performance and book are drawn from the TRL’s Picture Collection. “The Bird and the Cup” mines the collection to illustrate a three-part narrative that superimposes two iconic Toronto buildings in the imagination of the audience: the Toronto Reference Library and the John P. Robarts Research Library.