These anamorphic sculptures of birds send an important message about the environment and the wildlife affected by mass consumption, waste, and the climate crisis.
One man’s trash is this artist’s material of choice. Artist Thomas Deininger takes discarded items and transforms them into anamorphic sculptures of birds, many of which are endangered or extinct, sending an important environmental message through his art. Each completed piece looks like a lifelike interpretation of a bird when looking at it from a particular angle, but the real magic sinks in once the point of view shifts. Deininger plays with perspective for his pieces to come together, as they are made of a cleverly arranged mix of old plastic toys and trinkets, sending a warning about how our abuse of resources is harming the natural world.
Armed with a glue gun, Deininger joins the items in a complex web that wouldn’t make much sense until it is viewed from a certain angle. “Now that I’ve been doing this a while, I see parts and pieces of creatures (birds, fish, insects, etc.) in all kinds of man-made materials,” Deininger told Jejune Magazine. “I see beaks and wings and feathers claws everywhere in a kind of reverse biomimicry. Conversely, I also see shapes and textures of specific objects when observing the natural world. Sometimes a material or action figure inspires the subject, sometimes it’s the other way around.”[…]
For Deininger, the climate crisis is his biggest political and social concern, and that’s why it has taken center stage in his artistic practice. “I have always been sensitive to these issues but the catalyst to make the statement was definitely witnessing first hand plastics wash up on remote islands in the South Pacific when I was on a years long surfing trip around the world,” Deininger says. “I became very disappointed about American consumer culture being exported all over the world. It clearly seemed like a temporary solution with long term deleterious consequence.”
