Taryn Simon. Birds 1 + 2

Jeder Vogel, der jemals in einem James-Bond-Filme auftauchte, in einem Archiv von Taryn Simon

In a meticulous and comprehensive dissection of the Bond films, artist Taryn Simon inventoried women, weapons and vehicles in Bond. The contents of these categories function as essential accessories to the narrative's myth of the seductive, powerful, and invincible western male. In Birds of the West Indies, Simon presents a visual database of interchangeable variables used in the production of fantasy, through which she examines the economic and emotional value generated by their repetition.

In 1936, an American ornithologist named James Bond published the definitive taxonomy Birds of the West Indies. Ian Fleming, an active bird-watcher living in Jamaica, appropriated the name for his novel's lead character. He found it flat and colorless, a fitting choice for a character intended to be anonymous. . . a blunt instrument in the hands of the government. In Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies, Taryn Simon casts herself as James Bond (19001989) the ornithologist, and identifies, photographs, and classifies all the birds that appear within the twenty-four films of the James Bond franchise. The appearance of many of the birds was unplanned and virtually undetected, operating as background noise for whatever set they happened to fly into. Simon's ornithological discoveries occupy a liminal spaceconfined within the fiction of the James Bond universe and yet wholly separate from it. This taxonomy of 331 birds is a precise consideration of a new nature found in an alternate reality.

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In 1936, an American ornithologist named James Bond published the definitive taxonomy Birds of the West Indies. Ian Fleming, an active bird-watcher living in Jamaica, appropriated the name for his novel's lead character. He found it "flat and colourless," a fitting choice for a character intended to be "anonymous. . . a blunt instrument in the hands of the government."
In Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies, Taryn Simon ( 1975) casts herself as James Bond (1900-1989) the ornithologist, and identifies, photographs, and classifies all the birds that appear within the twenty-four films of the James Bond franchise. The appearance of many of the birds was unplanned and virtually undetected, operating as background noise for whatever set they happened to fly into. Simon's ornithological discoveries occupy a liminal space-confined within the fiction of the James Bond universe and yet wholly separate from it. This taxonomy of 331 birds is a precise consideration of a new nature found in an alternate reality.

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1936 veröffentlichte ein amerikanischer Ornithologe namens James Bond die maßgebliche Studie zur Vogelwelt der Karibik. Ian Fleming, selbst begeisterter Vogelliebhaber, übernahm den Namen für seinen Titelhelden. Er fand ihn »flach und farblos«, passend für ein »anonymes ... stumpfes Werkzeug in den Händen einer Regierung«. Für Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies schlüpft Taryn Simon (*1975) in die Rolle des originalen James Bond und identifiziert, fotografiert und klassifiziert jeden einzelnen der Vögel in allen 24 James-Bond-Filmen. Viele davon tauchten ungeplant auf und blieben unbemerkt, sie bilden lediglich eine Art Hintergrundrauschen des Films, in den sie zufällig geflogen waren. Simons ornithologischen Entdeckungen finden in einer Grauzone statt - einerseits innerhalb des James-Bond-Universums, andererseits völlig außerhalb. Ihre Taxinomie von 331 Vögeln ist somit die präzise Betrachtung einer neuartigen Natur, vorgefunden in einer parallelen Realität.