Artist Statement

The Chickens are the building blocks of an evolving conceptual art installation, and were originally created in homage to the first great migration of Puerto Ricans to New York City during the1940's and 50's. These immigrants, though encouraged by U.S. policy, were poorly received. Despite the literal and figurative cold welcome that awaited, they fled failing local economies in Puerto Rico's rural areas to seek manufacturing jobs on the mainland. To many, such positions represented substantial economic and social gain. 

Borinquen migrants did not travel in style. The only flight they could afford was a midnight cargo run from San Juan, fitted with hard benches and requiring double the time of a passenger flight. Among country people, this trip became known as the “Chicken Song”, because at the moment it touched down in New York, Puerto Rico's roosters were crowing at the day's first sun. In addition, urban Puerto Ricans-- and perhaps white America-- snidely considered chickens to be the prize possessions of “peasants,” therefore likely to be smuggled onboard. 

The Chickens project began with the re-purposing from a cubist perspective of discarded plastic bottles (an appropriate material given that those emigrating were widely seen as "trash") into 50's era, radioactive film monsters. The refractory nature of The Chickens' composition inspired the use of contained light to represent the inner glow of aspiration within these mid-century Caribbean sojourners. The color red references the danger that awaited them, and in particular the threat posed by police authorities – which is now at its most severe in parts of contemporary America. 

Upon completion and initial arrangement, the multi-surface, Cubist construction of each animal's physical form gave rise to the notion of that The Chickens, while hatched as avatar for the great Puerto Rican pilgrimage, should evolve as a collection to represent multiple points of view and to tell many stories. In essence, the only “real” song of these birds is the final truth they speak to each individual viewer, if and when a reaction is achieved.

Future iterations may include a school workshop project to reclaim plastic bottles and create chickens that would completely cover Sheep's Meadow in Central Park (a nod to the work of Cristo and the recently deceased Jeanne-Claude). The lights within this army of chickens would be powered by solar panels throughout the field. On a large enough scale, satellite photography could be used to make prints of this and other simultaneous installations around the world. These prints would be combined for display with digital closeups of red light's motion within the translucent prisms. 

On a smaller scale, The Chickens can be used as a float in New York City's Puerto Rican Day Parade, to represent the spirit of a collective ancestry proudly marching up 5Th Avenue. 
Lastly, the artist hopes that The Chickens will serve as a model for the use of durable reclaimed materials in general construction. 

The Chickens have shown at Dumbo Arts Festival in New York, Longwood Art Gallery @HOSTOS (City University of New York), and at the Delaware Museum of Fine Arts. 

Artsee is hosting The Chickens during design week in New York, after which the installation is on its way to a show at The Canal Gallery in historic Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Troy Rutman