SyndicationMay/16/2008 - 02:17:11 pm
In the beginning...........
This is my first proper Blog for 'Pigeon Works' I intend to write weekly now that the project is up and running. This Blog is to act as a diary for my research into the world of pigeons and their keepers. The main question I want to find out is if pigeon fanciers live up to their stereotype of a cloth hat wearing, bitter drinking, working class Northerner.
It is also becoming quite obvious that pigeon racing is dying out, less and less people join clubs each year. I am now a subscriber to 'British Homing World' magazine and it has the biggest obituary column I have ever seen. Not many children are joining and this is thought to be because they are more interested in computer games. I disagree; I don't think they know about pigeon racing in fact I would say most of the World knows absolutely sod all about it. I certainly didn't until I started this research, for instance did you know about Cher Ami? The role of the pigeon through history has been a really important one.
In World War 1 American troops were stranded without food and ammunition and they were being shot at by allied troops. Three pigeons were sent to deliver messages, two were shot down instantly, and the other one was shot so many times that it was seen hurtling through the air. Miraculously it kept flying despite being shot through the breast, being blinded in one eye, covered in blood, and having a leg hanging only by a tendon. It flew 25 miles in 25 minutes delivering the message to its headquarters, saving the lives of 200 men. The pigeon won a medal for animal bravery and it is now stuffed and on show in a museum in America.
Through this artwork I wish to revive this sport/hobby/way of live by acting as a sort of matchmaker between the public and pigeon fanciers. I am obsessed with Englishness and our National identity and think it would be sad to lose something that has been so intrinsic to England's character through ignorance.
So what have I been up to?
I have been working with two schools in Bournemouth St Lukes and Bishop of Winchester. Over two weeks I have taught 160 pupils between the ages of 8-13 about video art, pigeons, prop and costume making and filmmaking. Two pigeon fanciers Mr Blake and Mr Frewin from Christchurch and new Milton came into both schools with their prize pigeons. They taught the pupils about the pigeon's roles through history, pigeon racing and pigeon care.
On the 10th June Mr Blake, Mr Frewin and myself are going back to the schools for a pigeon festival. The pupils will all be making the films that they have meticulously planned about pigeons. Then the pupils all in teams will race pigeons with coded messages that need to be deciphered attached to their legs. As the pigeons arrive home the messages will be read out over a tannoy system, there will then be a rush for the pupils to decipher the messages to win prizes. It will be like a war re-enactment where nobody's is in danger.
Pictures to come......
