Motacilla

Motacilla, 2022 Ceramic and wood 

Since I moved to Sweden, I have started watching birds, feeding them and enjoying their presence. They relaxed me while making ceramics. This work of art is dedicated to birds, I named it with a Latin name Motacilla. The genus Motacilla was introduced by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae¹. The type species is the white wagtail. The form is inspired with seashells and in whole process I combined many beauties of nature to create this bird feeder; a sea life and birds for the inspiration, rock for creating the surface, and wood and clay for the final artwork.

BIRD OF PASSION

Leave the lovely words unsaid;

For another thought is fled

From my dream-entangled mind.

Bird of passion, unenshrined,

I can never phrase thee quite-

So I speed thee on thy flight,

Unembodied thus forever,

Floating in a mist that never

May be raiséd.

Thou art one

Of the black-winged birds that run,

With uncomprehended flight,

Unimpeded down the night.

- Rollo Britten

¹ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae:Laurentii Salvii. p. 184.