Fledgling by Mickey Alice Kwapis

Join us for the opening of Flegling by Mickey Alice Kwapis

Mana Contemporary Chicago

2233 S. Throop St. Chicago IL 60608

8th fl.

Artist statement:

I knew of the peregrine falcons at Mana Contemporary long before I actually moved into the building in 2022. My favorite bird of prey, they can reach dive speeds of up to 200 mph while hunting other birds. As tenants and staff learned of my background in taxidermy, they started offering me miscellaneous wings and feathers found in the parking lot — but as anyone with taxidermy experience knows, we typically work with whole frozen specimens and don’t have much use for a mummified foot or a severed head on its own.

Still, I hated having to say no thank you, and wanted to find a way to pay tribute to all of the small birds who had given their lives to nurture the incredible predators who have taken up residence on the fire escape. While these bird parts themselves didn’t fit a specific vision for any artwork of mine at the time, I dug into my past life as a printmaking and traditional photography student and decided that the cyanotype process could be the perfect homage.

Using watercolor paper I treated with photosensitive cyanotype chemicals, each image depicts the “ghost” of a space that a bird part or parts once occupied. This exhibition encompasses three years of my collaboration with the falcons, documenting the pieces of their prey discarded all around the building. Donning a hard hat and armed with a broom under the supervision of Mana Contemporary staff to avoid getting dive-bombed by one of my muses, I helped clean buckets of remains from the roof and parking lot.

In accordance with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, the parts of any migratory bird we found were printed in situ outdoors using the sun and then left to blow away as nature intended, while confirmed non-native pigeon parts were brought inside to be printed under an indoor UV unit. This important wildlife legislation has assisted in the resurgence of bird species throughout the Americas over the past century, including our beloved peregrine falcons.

Fledgling is a culmination of all of the blueprints I have made during my time at Mana so far, an ever-expanding collection representing the passage of my time as an artist and three generations of falcon families. I love watching the babies as they grow up, start losing their fluffy white down, and learn to fly before they finally leave for good, often feeling like one of those awkward teenage birds who hasn’t developed confidence but knowing I just need to spread my wings and see what happens when I put my most vulnerable art out into the world.

More information about Chicago’s Peregrine Falcon Program, including the falcons who reside at Mana Contemporary, can be found through the Field Museum’s website. If you would like to see how cyanotypes are printed indoors, or even try your hand at printing your own, please visit me in Studio 840, all the way down the hall to your right.

About the artist:

Mickey Alice Kwapis was born in 1990 in Royal Oak, Michigan. She pursued a BFA in printmaking at Siena Heights University for two years before ultimately obtaining a degree in Urban & Regional Studies from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. During this time she began learning the taxidermy process and honing her jewelry practice, going on to teach taxidermy at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland among other institutions. Mickey’s pigment reliquary jewelry is carried in the gift shop at the Harvard Art Museums and her taxidermy work has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, and several documentary short films. Fledgling is her first solo exhibition.