A lone black-crowned night heron stands above a deconstructed cabinet of curiosity, surveying an assemblage of historical fragments—glass bottles, ceramics, and remnants of the past. Below this installation, a video traces the heron’s life over five years, documenting how it has grown and learned to hunt within the confines of a cement drain built in 1935 over a once-natural stream. The bird appears here only once a year for a single week—where it goes for the rest of the time remains a mystery.
Black-crowned night herons have long demonstrated an ability to thrive in urban environments, adapting to artificial waterways and human-altered landscapes. This work brings together two layers of history: the heron, a living remnant of a landscape transformed, and the objects, traces of lives that once occupied this space. A Crown in the Ruins reflects on survival, persistence, and the quiet negotiations between nature and the built world.
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