Mark Anderson has created a number of instalations for 'For the Birds' since the first show at Ynys-hir Bird Reserve in 2014 and new pieces are planed for 2018-2019.
Drawing inspiration from and taking place the first time at the exceptional Ynys-hir Bird Reserve in October 2014 it took the Power Plant template of a night time journey through a series of sound and light installations but with a specific avian theme, and focus on creating low energy and ecologically sustanable work. The show is produced by the artist Jony Easterby, with the artists Mark Anderson, Kathy Hinde and Ulf Pedersen.
As transient and light as the birds themselves, the installations are created using a mixture of low tech, low power equipment suitable for remote places, using low energy lighting, small scale multi-speaker systems, low volt micro processors, electro-acoustic instruments, performances, projections and kinetic sculptures the artists celebrate the birds in song, movement and light.
For the Birds took flight to the Brighton Festival 2017 and invited a visiting public on a meditative and immersive journey through a secret South Downs woodland location. A self-guided journey through a wild landscape after the onset of darkness, whilst transformed by a series of up to thirty bespoke light and sound installations produced by some of the most dynamic sound artists currently working in the UK. For the Birds was staged over four weeks with 17 shows attended by up to 1300 people each night. The show broke the box office record at the Brighton Festival attracting over 15,000 people to marvel at the beauties and poignancy of the installations, immersed in the forest at night
In November 2017 For the Birds in its full incarnation had its fourth full staging at Durham Lumiere where it was a a ‘firm favourite’ with the audiences there, attracting nearly 15,000 people. For the Birds returned to Durham in 2019 for the 10 Aniversary of Lumier.
‘For The Birds is an original and richly enjoyable experience and reminded this writer that such free-form art can be glorious. This kind of beauty is not generated in golf clubs by Tories, by those who think material wealth is the game of life. It blossoms on the fringes, away from the endless pursuit of money, created by the kind of people Daily Mailers might regard as excess to purpose. It is a small oasis of strange, contemplative, other-worldly loveliness in a land increasingly ruled by banal norms.’
