Peter Fend

BIRDS REIGN

November 21, 2020 – February 20, 2021

The show’s title refers not only to the capacity for birds (and their feathers) to positively effect large and complex networks of life, but also their disregard for human-derived hierarchies and dominions.

Accompanying the installation Urban Extrusion are new drawings by Fend that depict the flyways of migratory birds. Like a global circulatory system, these trajectories cross vast bodies of water, borders and hemispheres.

In ever-widening space, notions of nationality and ideology collapse under the effort of the journey.

Peter Fend, Urban Extrusion, 2004, c-prints on foamboard, feathers, cardboard, video 13:46 min, dimensions variable

Peter Fend, Urban Extrusion (2004), installation view of the exhibition Birds Reign (2020), Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin.

Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Barbara Weiss.

Peter Fend, Urban Extrusion (2004), installation view of the exhibition Birds Reign (2020), Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin.

Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Barbara Weiss.

Peter Fend, Urban Extrusion (2004), installation view of the exhibition Birds Reign (2020), Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin.

Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Barbara Weiss.

Urban Extrusion (detail), 2004

Peter Fend, Urban Extrusion (2004), installation view of the exhibition Birds Reign (2020), Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin.

Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Barbara Weiss.

Installation view of the exhibition Birds Reign (2020), Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Barbara Weiss.

Peter Fend, Birds Reign - East Asia, 2020, pencil and colored pencil on paper, 60.96 × 45.72 cm / 24 × 18 in

Peter Fend, Birds Reign - Americas, 2020, pencil and colored pencil on paper, 60.96 × 45.72 cm / 24 × 18 in

Peter Fend (b. 1950) has been featured in notable survey exhibitions around the world, including: Documenta IX, 1992, Kassel; the 45th Venice Biennial, 1999 and the 47th Venice Biennial, 2003; the Liverpool Biennial, 2003; and the 8th Sharjah Biennial, 2007. He has had solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Dusseldorf; The Kitchen, New York; Kunstraum Daxer, Munich; American Fine Art, New York; Arnolfini, Bristol; Roger Pailhas, Paris; Georg Kargl, Vienna; and Essex Street, New York.