Gail Tarantino Vocal Learning-Western Bluebird, 2024
Acrylic ink on paper
80 x 44.5 inches
Presented by Uprise Art
In the natural world, the sensory experience of watching birds fly is captivating, and the melodic sounds of various bird species can be pitch-perfect. Often we hear, rather than see, birds hidden among the landscape. Wanting to understand more about bird vocalization, Tarantino began looking at spectrograms that show frequency of sound over time, as a way to ‘read’ bird songs. To further understand the secret language of birds, she combed over a list of bird song mnemonic, a tool used by ornithologists and designed to aid memory in remembering bird calls. Seeing what birds say phonetically, sharpened Tarantino’s ear. Like humans, birds learn to sing through the process of vocal learning – through listening, imitating, and practicing. Songs can be fast, fleeting, and confusing in identifying the cadence of each bird – especially when calls may overlap. As there is variation in plumage, there is variety in song. Approaching this work through a mnemonic lens, chronicling the percussive and rhythmic sounds with overlapping text, Tarantino has created a form of bird song syntax in a palette heavily influenced by the coloring of each bird species, making a visually innovative, oversized field guide.
Artist bio:
Gail Tarantino’s work investigates language’s structure, rhythm, and codes. Thinking about language, writing systems, forms of communication and its myriad of meanings have been a continuous thread in several bodies of work. Creating short narratives, translations, and the distillation of language are a reoccurring fascination. By referencing a familiar thought or phrase, Tarantino creates a structure of rhythmic arrangements of text, texture, and context that taps into the musicality of language, both spoken and read. In Tarantino’s work, creating textual wordplay arrangements become a form of inquiry, reflecting on what is visible and invisible, what we may see or not see, what may be deliberately left out, the way we encounter a text that is not ours, and implicit or hidden meaning.