Bird Collisions
2026
Video, performance, and photographic installation
Using the phenomenon of birds striking glass as a metaphor
to reflect invisible social barriers confronted by immigrants.
Bird Collisions (2026)
14:00, 4K color stereo sound
Video, performance, and photographic installation
Bird Collisions is a multidisciplinary installation extending from the long-term artistic research project Free as Birds. The work takes the ecological phenomenon of birds striking architectural glass as a point of departure to examine the hidden frictions of mobility in contemporary society. Glass constructs a false sense of openness in modern urban spaces. It permits visual transparency while enforcing a harsh physical exclusion. The project aligns this spatial paradox with the lived experiences of individuals from immigrant backgrounds. It creates a space where the natural instinct of migration collides with the invisible architectures of social structures.
The project developed through participatory workshops and performance in Finland. Participants with immigrant backgrounds use their bodies and voices to interact with an imagined transparent boundary. Accompanied by fragmented vocalizations and breathing, these individual experiences of structural friction are translated into an embodied archive.
During the process, participants gather in a storytelling circle. They collectively imagine and continue the narrative of a bird's migratory journey. This co-created, nonlinear text forms the acoustic and narrative foundation of the video.
Stills, Bird Collisions, 2026
The installation materializes these invisible social barriers. Participants press their palms against transparent paper. The shape of two connected hands mimics a bird's wings. Dust, flour, and sweat leave physical imprints of their bodies on the implied wall. Furthermore, the work utilizes a linguistic double meaning: in the artist’s mother tongue, "raincoat" (雨衣 Yu Yi) and "wings" (羽翼 Yu Yi) share the pronunciation. Participants write poems and songs about birds in their native languages onto raincoats. They wear these garments and spread them open like wings during the performance. In the exhibition space, these multilingual raincoats are connected together as a large projection screen for the video.
Video Installation, Open Studio at Nordic Culture Point, Helsinki, Finland, 2026
Bird Collisions, Photograhic Installation, 2026
Bird Collisions isolates the precise moments when a subject's orientation, movement, and breath fall out of sync with their environment. The work reveals how tightening migration policies, subtle social exclusion, and restricted spatial agency are absorbed directly into the flesh. It grounds macro-geopolitical issues in micro-embodied experiences, capturing the sustained tension and subtle resistance of living bodies against structural confines.
Bird Collisions, Photography, 2026
Supported by the Saastamoinen Foundation, B28 Residency by Nordic Culture Point, and Aalto Studios.
Thanks to the participants who shared their journeys:
Ida Vu, Ricardo Baltazar, Branislav Dakovic, Safa Solati, Tangmo Ladapha.