Jane Edden

Ornithomorph

Flying Jackets investigates our attitudes to nature and the intention behind our consumption of natural materials. Each jacket, the size of a humming bird, is assembled from hundreds of minute feathers to create a collection that inhabits a hybrid space between avian and human. Feathers, aside from their functional use, have been used as human adornment in tribal, sacred, ritual, military and fashion settings, so universally that it seems to be almost innate. A fundamental form of visual expression that has caused humans to decimate bird populations and place high value on some feathers while willingly letting others go to waste.

Informed by her fascination with the way animals are collected, classified and catalogued; Edden has adopted a scientific system of labelling and nomenclature. This references man's relationship with flight and the habit of romanticizing airplanes by naming them after birds, animals, insects and natural events. These names seem to give rise to personalities by association, even suggesting the sex of each avian jacket, which is also duly recorded. The process of constructing the final object is almost a reversal of the scientific approach that was her inspiration.