Bird Closet (2018-2020) was an art collective formed in the rural Appalachian village of Bethel, OH.
Collective members inhabited self-selected bird alter egos and donned bird masks of their own creation as means of evoking an alternate universe in which the birds were free to pursue creative and social projects that seemed untenable in the world as it existed.
Far from escapist, the works of Bird Closet excavated the village’s past and used this history as material with which to imagine new possible futures for the village of Bethel and inspire similar explorations by other residents of the area and beyond.
Over two years, the collective produced writings, collages, and public interventions including billboards, performances, and the zine Fraxinus.
SOIL SERIES: A Social Drawing (2017-2019) was a process of serial socially engaged research facilitated by artists Francesca Fiore and Hillary Wagner in collaboration with the community of Bethel, OH, a rural village in Appalachia.
SOIL SERIES found many forms including conversations, public programs, projects, and collective imagining.
A drawing in the most expansive sense, SOIL SERIES was an exercise in relational mark-making.
By creating the conditions for new conversations and possibilities around artmaking, the public, and social imagination, SOIL SERIES proposed social drawing as the generative engine for community-initiated action.
SOIL SERIES produced the relationships that organically led to the later formation of the collective Bird Closet.
