Birds in an Aquarium 1920

Curator: This piece, sculpted by Jean Arp around 1920, is entitled "Birds in an Aquarium". The work, currently held at MoMA, uses the rich texture of wood to create an abstract tableau. Editor: It strikes me immediately as rather foreboding. The deep blacks, the unsettling organic shapes…there's a disquieting contrast between the title's suggestion of gentle nature and the work's ominous feel. Curator: I'd agree that there is more to this than initially meets the eye, it delves into the Dadaist sensibility of the time. Arp was interested in forms that echo the natural world but aren't strictly representational. Editor: It challenges the very idea of an aquarium, right? These aren’t colourful fish gliding gracefully, but more primordial, unsettling life-forms suspended or, perhaps, trapped. The use of black exacerbates that sense of confinement and, frankly, otherness. Aquariums as places of display and observation always suggest power dynamics to me—who gets to observe whom? Curator: That interplay between observer and observed resonates well within the work's context. This work is a product of its time and the collective angst of a post-war generation seeking meaning amid absurdity. Look at the single red marking; it's not only a focus point for the eye, it creates this stark unsettling energy to the artwork's tone. Editor: The placement is unsettling; it pulls the eye to the void at the centre. Dada loved disrupting the status quo, questioning boundaries and received ideas of beauty. By placing the sculpture into a gallery it amplifies the sculpture's nature and meaning, it has gained power. Curator: Certainly! And what do birds and aquariums mean to us, collectively, culturally? This art becomes a sign of the new world post World War One. As Dada seeks a return to the childlike sense of wonder. It embraces accident and the irrational, hoping for the new Eden. Editor: Which makes one reconsider this disquiet it provokes, shifting instead towards reflection. What new futures are truly possible amidst trauma? It is not always pretty, sometimes difficult to understand. Arp's sculpture opens that space for difficult but necessary questions.