The Murmuration Is Not What It Appears To Be At First Glance

Alain Delorme tends to reveal the absurdities and excesses of a modern world. In his series, Murmuration, the viewer will see dark clouds moving with graceful turns in the sky over a variety of landscapes, which appear in silhouettes. One might think, “Is that a murmuration of starlings?”

Reading the artist statement, the truth is revealed: not birds, but thousands of individually placed plastic bags. The kind of plastic bag that takes 400 years to decompose in a landfill.

Murmuration 2012-2014 (detail) by Alain Delorme, from the Madga Danysz Gallery promotional materials