Nina Katchadourian: Twitchers and Cheaters

Originally exhibited in 2008 at the Fields Sculpture Park, Twitchers and Cheaters is a multichannel video installation highlighting the common habits of bird watchers (sometimes nicknamed “twitchers”) that gently pokes fun at our tendency to collect, identify, and categorize. The project is Nina Katchadourian’s take on a “life list”—a list prized by most birders that relies on the honor system to track sightings over time. The artist uses video footage of birds—appropriated from instructional bird-watching DVDs used to identify different species—that flits from monitor to monitor and induces a “twitching” type of looking for the viewer. Displayed on five monitors, Katchadourian’s piece essentially presents a cheater’s “life list” in just minutes.

Katchadourian’s AAM iteration is on view in the exterior Grand Stair playing footage of all the local bird species that might be encountered in and around Pitkin County.