Can a bird made from wire be plump? Oh yes.
Iris Casey’s birds, made from wires and pliers, humour and love can be anything she wants them to be: plump, proud, wistful, whimsical or downright funny.
She was experimenting with three-dimensional art at the famed Haliburton School of Art + Design when she found her passion in bending, curling and moulding wire into fantastical sculptures.
“Birds are my favourites,” she admits, but that includes big birds too, like the outdoor heron with long legs of rusty rebar. “I try not to make them too big to fit into a car,” she says sensibly.
Iris is a masterful mosaic artist too. “I cover things in mosaic using found objects, broken mirrors, buttons and washers and sparkly bits and bobs.” Her humour shines through in some pieces. One of her pieces was a low boot covered in broken black glass and bits of mirror and silver, with wicked chrome spikes around its “collar.” Titled A Hard Day’s Night it was sexy and funny – Rock ’n’ Roll on a stiletto heel – and it sold quickly at Picton’s Arts on Main.
During the Covid-19 lockdowns, Iris began playing around with her birds a little more. “I dressed them up and this made me laugh. I thought, Hey, I’m onto something here.”
In this grim old world, we all need things to make us smile, and there may even be some folks who can relate to a scruffy crow dressing up as a flamingo, with false beak, stilts and pink feathers. Iris Casey can make us smile.
iriscasey.com
Story by:
Fiona Campbell
